Cinderella with an added dose on One Piece
by ParanoiaQueen
Summary: A seven day masquerade, the daughter of a duke turned maid and thief, a Prince who hates his duty, annoying step-families, demanding fathers, and love are all involved in what happened the day, well days, that One Piece got confused with Cinderella
1. Why it happened and why she was there

**And once again I still don't own One Piece and I am still working on that, one day I will own it, or at least Zoro, well maybe a Zoro figure but I will own something! Anyway this is One Piece and Cinderella, I am probably going to do a ton of fairy tales like this beacuse I like fairy tales and one piece. So it took me a while to write this so please review. It will probably be like four chapters but I will let you know when I finish writing the story and fully develop the plot and all that. Yes this is a ZoNa story and romance will come later, probably will stay rated T**

Brushing her short red hair out of her eyes the 18 year old sighed at her reflection bathed in the early morning light. Noticing that bags under her eyes she wished that she could turn back the clock to when she could sleep in, but she knew that time was long passed. She remembered her happy childhood as the only child of her mother and father and how she had been treated like a princess. She was pulled out of her fantasy world by a dinging sound that meant he step-mother wanted her for something. Quickly changing into her thin dress she rushed down the stairs from the attic to the room of the impatient dragon woman.

"Yes mother," she said as sweetly as she could muster as she stepped into what used to be her parents bed chamber.

"Close my blinds," the woman growled in response, "the light is keeping me from my sleep." Scowling at being ordered around the girl complied, she didn't really have any other choice. "Now leave me to my sleep," the woman demanded.

"Yes mother," the girl replied before walking out of the room as quietly as she could and resisting the urge to slam the door behind her. Sighing in frustration she made her way down to the kitchen to start breakfast. She wasn't the best cook and they knew it but insisted that she do everything around the house, it was cheaper than hiring a cook and made her life worse. She entered the kitchen and peered around to take stock of what they had left.

"I'll have to go shopping again," to herself, it would be difficult to be able to convince them to give her money or to be able to leave the house, though if she pointed out how she was doing it for their benefit they would most likely let her go. Finally deciding that they would live with eggs this morning she took a small amount of money out of the food budget jar to buy muffins from the baker and pay for milk from the milkman. Grabbing the thin coat that they had allowed her to keep she stepped out the back door and shivered.

She walked briskly down the path and to the village where she could step into a shop to warm up. As she approached the village she saw the bookstore and decided to stop, her best, and well to be honest only friend, worked there, and well she was cold.

"Nami!" Habille exclaimed happily as Nami walked in the door to the bookshop. Nami waved at her friend with a smile. She enjoyed her bookworm friend. Habille quickly put the book she was holding on the shelf and rushing over to her friend. Laughing Nami caught her friends glasses as the slipped off her face, it was a common occurrence. "How are you?"

"Oh you know, same as usual." She loved her friend, she seemed so reserved until you got to know her. "I just stopped in to get warm, I have to go buy muffins from the baker and some milk."

"Oh, would you mind if I joined? I have to get something from there as well." She looked to excited for Nami to say no and soon they were on their way to the baker. They hurried because of the cold and soon they had reached their destination. Rushing into the warm shop the girls began to look at all of the delicious looking pastries that were on display, Nami wished she could buy them but she knew she could never get away with it and went to go look at the boxes of muffins. Her step-mother and step-sisters always wanted a muffin to go with their breakfast and they only came in boxes of four meaning Nami could take one for herself as well.

"May I please have these," she said to the baker as she set the muffins on the counter. He nodded and took her money before handing her change. After finishing her task she looked around for her friend, she had to get home soon but she couldn't just leave Habille behind.

"Nami are you ready to go?" a voice asked her from behind. She jumped slightly after being startled but quickly regained her composure as she turned to face the younger girl. "Here I got you one too," Habille said as she held a tasty looking tart out. Nami looked at it, then back up at her friend, before finally taking it. The girls left the shop and bit into the lemon tarts that Habille had purchased. Nami wished they could stay like this forever, shopping with her friend was her favorite part of the day, but she knew she had to hurry back to the house before she was missed.

"Habille I have to go," Nami said as they approached the bookstore again, "I have more shopping to do, most likely this afternoon so I will stop by again then." The girls waved goodbye and Nami rushed back to her home just in time to meet the milkman. After buying the milk she rushed out of the cold and began to cook eggs for the breakfast of her well you could basically call them jailers.

"Where is my breakfast?" rang a shrill voice just as Nami finished placing the plates on her tray.

"I am coming sister dearest," Nami called sickened by the false sweetness that coated her own tone.

"Well hurry up," an even shriller voice called. Sighing Nami rushed up the stairs to serve the egoists that ruled her once happy home. She went into her mother's room first and set down the tray meant for the dragon lady, noticing that she was still asleep and couldn't be bothered. Next she entered the room of her older sister only to have to dodge a pillow that had been thrown the moment she had opened the door.

"Took you long enough," the long nosed girl chided.

"I'm sorry Porche-chan," Nami said doing her best to sound like she meant it as she set down the tray.

"Well don't let it happen again," the blue haired girl replied snottily. Nami nodded then hurried out of the self proclaimed idol's room. She then carefully entered the room of her oldest sister, she had to be careful with this one, she was much more dangerous than the annoying Porche.

"Put it on the desk and get out," a woman with long blonde hair and glasses directed as Nami entered the room mentally sighing with relief that Kalifa was in a good mood. She did as directed and was soon out of the room and hurried back down to the kitchen to write a list of what she needed to buy on her shopping trip later that day. A few minutes later she heard the doorbell ring and hurried to answer it.

"I have a proclamation from the king," the stout man at the door stated with an air of importance. "It is necessary that every member of this household hears it, go get them." The man obviously thought she was a servant and felt that she was beneath him but at this time in her life she was in no position to argue with that. She scowled then hurried to comply with his demands knowing full well that the dragon lady would not take well to being awakened at this hour.

"Mother," Nami said as she knocked on her door, "there is a man here with a proclamation from the king." She heard the dragon lady growl from under the covers.

"HOW DARE YOU WAKE ME UP THIS EARLY!" the woman screeched as she leapt from beneath the covers with her metal club aimed right at the red head.

"I'm sorry but he said it was urgent news from the king." Nami said as she prepared to avid the fearsome club that her step-mother insisted on carrying.

"News from the king?" the woman stopped in her tracks, "has he finally realized that I, Alvida, am the most beautiful woman in the kingdom and has decided to take me for him new bride? That must be it, Nami," she barked, "wake your sisters and tell them to get downstairs this instant to her what this messenger has to say." Nami nodded then hurried away. Soon all of them were standing in the entrance hall of their mansion to listen to what the proclamation said.

"Uh hem," the man started turning his nose into the air as he began to read, though it just made him look quite silly, especially since he was over a head shorter than anyone else present. "Here thee here thee, I the king of this land do hereby proclaim that every eligible lady in this land must attend a ball thrown in honor of my son's twentieth birthday so he may choose a bride. This celebration will last for seven nights allowing for a bride to be chosen to become the future queen of this kingdom. It begins at seven o'clock tomorrow night." The man rolled up the parchment he had read and handed them a letter containing what he had read and more details before leaving.

"Ooh mommy," Porche exclaimed, "isn't this just perfect, he will obviously chose me and then we can all live in the palace with servants who actually know there job," she threw a glare in Nami's direction before giving her very distinct nasally laugh. Using all of her self control Nami resisted bashing her head in but it was a hard battle.

"It says here that **every** girl between the ages of 15 and 30 must attend," Nami said as she scanned the letter the man had handed her.

"And?" the dragon woman asked leaning on her club.

"That means me," she responed causing her step-mother and Porche to laugh and Kalifa to give her an are you serious look.

"Of course they wouldn't mean you," her mother stated, "they said eligible and that doesn't include people without proper breeding like yourself."

"You seem to forget that my father was a lord and my mother a lady." Nami retorted causing a vein to pop in the dragon's head.

"You're not going and that's final," she hissed, "you would do well never to speak that sentence again." With that she stalked off with her daughters in her wake. Nami glared after them, if it hadn't been for her father marrying that dragon then they wouldn't have been invited at all and she would be the one who would have danced the night away instead of that prissy Porche and Kalifa, who was more likely to kill the prince than marry him. It wasn't as if she liked balls or wanted to marry someone that she had no feelings for but she couldn't stand giving them satisfaction. Growling Nami picked up her list and left the house, she would talk this over with Habille, that always made her feel better.

**The Prince's pov one day earlier**

He felt a vein appear on his forehead as he realized what his father had done now, he had been pestering him about getting married now that he was 20 but he hadn't thought that his father would go to these lengths to make sure he got his way. That old man had gone and thrown a seven day ball, inviting every eligible young woman in the kingdom and threatening to take away his swords if he didn't pick a wife by the end.

Growling he walked to the training courts, it was the best place for him to clear his head. He called to his friend Luffy and the two had a short training spar that left them both gasping for breath at the end. He felt better after putting all of his anger into the fight and almost didn't growl when his father's messenger came to get him for a fitting. He had to get seven different suits made for the ball! Meaning he had to waste a very large amount of time sitting there getting poked by needles without moving.

"Stop squirming," the dressmaker chided, he stopped momentarily but as he was never one to sit still was soon twitching again. "I will sew these pants to your leg if you don't stop shifting around, just stand still for three more minutes and I promise you can leave." He tried, he really did, but his impatience was just too much, finally she had to let him go just because he was moving too much for any work to get done. "Boys these days," she sighed, "well go to lunch then and we can try this again later," she saw the expression of horror that crossed his face, "don't think we are done, you may have gotten off for now but these do need to be finished and they need to fit well or your father will have my hide."

"ZORO," came a cry as a teenager with a straw hat came bursting into the room.

"Yes Luffy," the prince commented thankful for the excuse to leave.

"I'm hungry," the boy said as he slumped to the floor.

"Let's go," Zoro said as he started out the door, he was soon stopped by the dressmaker though.

"And where do you think you are going?" she asked sternly.

"To get lunch," Zoro replied agitatedly.

"Not while you're wearing that you're not," the large woman responded in a no nonsense tone. Zoro looked down to see that he was still wearing what was there of the suit. Cursing quietly Zoro moved behind the dressing screen where he quickly changed back into his normal white shirt and dark green pants before being dragged to the kitchen by Luffy.

"Hello Prince Zoro," a 28 year old woman with shoulder length black hair said as she looked up from the book she had been reading.

"Hello Robin," he responded before taking a seat next to her at the large table.

"Oi, Sanji," Luffy yelled as he plopped down next to Zoro at the table, "FOOD."

"One minute Luffy," a young blonde man about Zoro's age called as he moved around the kitchen making sure everything was perfect. "And here you go," he said as he set plates heaped with food in front of them. Luffy cheered quickly before almost inhaling the food before him, and one of the plates as well. Zoro shook his head at his friend before turning to his own food.

"I heard the king is having a ball for you to find a bride," Robin said as she closed her book. Zoro looked at the archeologist, he had almost forgotten about the detested ball that started the next night and went on for another seven nights after that.

"He wants me to have a wife and won't let me go any longer without one." Zoro responded bitterly.

"And how do you plan on getting out of it?" she asked. He looked at the woman that his father had once hoped he would marry and realized that she had him completely pegged.

"I will find a way to slip out once the ball is going."

"I doubt your father would let you out of his sight for one moment, he knows you just as well as I do."

"Arrrg," Zoro huffed irritatedly.

"I have a plan that you could try."

"What is it," he wanted a way out but was also suspicious of what the older woman would want him to do.

"Tell your father it should be a masquerade and masks should be taken off only on the last night, that way you could easily slip out, it's harder to recognize a person in a mask."

**Nami's pov**

Talking with Habille had helped but not in the way her mother would like. She had decided to go to the ball anyway. Habille had pointed out that it was a masquerade and therefore she could easily go without being noticed by her step-mother or step-sisters. Another thing she had found out was that every girl had been invited no matter what their background. She had approached Habille's house just to see a messenger leaving and when she had questioned Habille she had responded that every girl in the kingdom had been invited.

"So I can go," she said to herself, usually she would have no interest in a ball but since she had been forbidden from attending by the dragon lady or course she had to go. Next thing she had to do was get a dress, she had sneaked a few dollars here and there from the family but it wasn't nearly enough to buy a dress appropriate for the ball, and there was seven days of it! She hurried back to the house and rushed up to her room the moment she got there to count the money she had.

'_Not enough,_' she thought '_I could only get two really cheap ones or one semi nice one with this, nothing even close to ball worthy.'_ She stared at the small pile of money that she had collected over the years, she could easily sneak another few dollars but nothing drastic enough to change her situation. Thinking hard she realized that she could get by with buying one nice dress then scavenging the castle for money for the others. She quietly checked the house to find that her step-family was not home and she was free to get as much money as possible from the house without them being any wiser.

She was angry that they got to spend the money that was rightfully hers on dresses and accessories while she had to scavenge to take money that they wouldn't notice had disappeared for her own. She added her latest earnings to her pile and knew that she really didn't have enough for anything impressive. Grabbing what she had she left the house headed straight for a shop that sold premade dresses, any dress maker would be far too busy, expensive, and would increase the possibility of running into her family.

As she entered the shop she noticed that it was more crowded than it probably ever had been before and she understood why as she grabbed a few dresses off the racks and waited in line for her turn in the changing room. When she finally go in she quickly pulled off her maid outfit and threw on the first dress, it made her feel like a cupcake, the next one made her feel like a bride. She kept going through dresses until she came to the third to last one, she tried it on and it fit like a dream. It was tight and black with a low cut and a slit up to her thigh, most would say that it was to daring but for her it was perfect. She checked the price tag and was surprised to find that it was easily within her price range and left enough for her to get another dress, she assumed it was because it wasn't conservative enough for most.

She quickly tried on the last two dresses and discovered an aqua dress with poufy sleeves and a full skirt that looked good on her and fit in her budget. She bought both dresses and had just enough left over to buy a mask, she choose a full face cat mask, it seemed to fit her mission for there. She decided that she would steal shoes from her sisters wardrobes after they left and would be able to return them before they got home, she would have to leave after them and get home way before them anyway.

After she finished making her purchases she rushed back to the house and hid the dresses before her family returned, she couldn't have them seeing what she had bought and knowing that she was planning on going to the ball. She quickly grabbed a bucket of water and a rag and began to scrub the front hall so it would look like she had been busy the entire time they had been gone. When they finally returned she was almost finished with washing the floor and they just gave her the I am so much better than you look as they passed with their dress for the first day in their arms.

**Zoro's pov**

He had gotten roped into standing for the dress maker again when he could have been training. His father had discovered that he had left early from the first fitting and made sure that he couldn't leave this one by telling one of his advisors to stand in the room and give him a full report after. Zoro growled as he got stuck by another pin.

"Sorry sorry," the dressmaker mumbled without looking up from her work "now hold still while I finish this part and then we are done with all we can do for now." Zoro tried his best to stand as still as possible, he thought of it as a concentration training but he still couldn't help but feel a wave of relief as she said the final there and he was let go. He quickly changed back into his normal outfit and ran to the training grounds. When he got there he instantly took up a fight with one of the knights that was training there but beat him easily. Annoyed at the easy win Zoro fought knight after knight until he was panting for breath and they told him he should go to the doctor for the minor injuries that he had sustained.

"WHAT DID YOU DO ZORO?" Chopper yelled as he walked into the infirmary.

"I was just training."

"Ahh doctor, we need a doctor," Chopper exclaimed while running around franticly, "wait that's me." Zoro rolled his eyes at the ridiculousness of the doctor, did he have to forget that he was the doctor every single time? He sat through the first aid that Chopper applied and knew that he had better avoid his father or he was going to get it for getting injured right before the ball.

"And don't move too much and you should be healed by tomorrow night," Chopper said as he stepped back from his patient.

"Thanks Chopper," Zoro replied as he got up and left the room in favor of the kitchen for dinner.

"Oi, Zoro what happened?" Luffy shouted.

"I fought every knight on the training field," he replied.

"You got injured just from that you crappy swordsman," Sanji laughed as they entered the kitchen.

"Oi, let's see you do better you shitty cook," Zoro growled.

"FOOD!" screamed Luffy effectively shutting both of them up. Sanji dished out large helpings of food to the prince and his bottomless stomach friend before flirting with some of the female staff that had entered the kitchen for dinner. After dinner Zoro hurried to his room where he knew that his father would not bother him and went to sleep. He knew that he had to get as much sleep as possible that night so he wouldn't fall asleep during the ball and get an earful from his father about it.

He awoke the morning of the ball feeling refreshed, then he realized that he would be thrown into a room filled with egotistical girls and match maker mothers later that evening and all remnants of his good mood faded. He realized that there was someone knocking on his door.

"What?" he called out.

"Prince Zoro your father requests that you get dressed and come to the throne room immediately."

"Fine," Zoro replied unhappily, couldn't he even get the day for himself? He sighed and heaved himself out of bed to go and see what his father could possibly want from him already.

"You will go through a day of last minute lessons to make sure you are ready to pick a bride tonight. I have a dance tutor to review your lessons with, a manners master to make sure you know how to correctly treat every young lady, and a woman who will inform you of what ladies mean by how they act or what they say. You will begin at once, you will be eating breakfast with the manners master who will be sure to inform you of all the etiquette that you must use during the meals. Now off to the dining room with you." His father shooed him out of the throne room and he was escorted to the dining room by two attendants, he father must have known that he would try and slip away.

"First off you must always seem interested in what the lady is telling you," the manners master said nervously. He was an old man and he was a nervous man, especially around Zoro, many people were nervous around Zoro though. "Using the correct utensil must be second nature for you must be using most of your concentration to the lady and be sure to pay equal attention to all of the people surrounding you. Always be sure to know who is sitting to either side of you and have a base knowledge of a topic or two that interests them, you must never be at a loss for words or bore your neighbors during a meal." Zoro did his best to pay attention but frankly he didn't care how to impress a woman or how to treat her when they would be climbing all over him whether he liked it or not.

After he finally finished his breakfast, there had been much chiding from the manners master who felt the need to inform him how to hold his fork or spoon or which part of the plate to eat from first, Zoro was whisked away to a review dance class where he would stay until lunch. He was thrown with a girl who blushed too much and wouldn't talk as he clumsily attempted to get the steps right.

'_why does it matter how I dance?'_ he thought _' they aren't going to care if I can do the waltz correctly as long as I am still the prince and they could gain fame and fortune from marrying me.'_ He still tried, but not very hard, to master the dance since there were messengers who reported his every move to his father present. At lunch he was thrown in with the manners master again and had to deal with him for an hour after as well before he was whisked away to spend an hour with the woman who would tell him what a girl meant by her every action. After that he was poked and prodded and scrubbed as he was bathed and dressed for the dance. Finally it was time for him to put on his mask and enter the ball room.

**Nami's pov**

She had woken up the day of the ball buzzed with excitement, she would be breaking the rules set forth by her step-family and would come home with enough money to pay for the rest of her dresses with accessories. She had a bounce in her step as she prepared breakfast and served it to her family. It was too late when she realized that they would suspect something from her good mood.

"What has you in a good mood?" the dragon lady asked suspiciously as her breakfast was delivered.

"Nothing mother dearest," Nami almost sang.

"Well, keep it up, servants are more effective when they are in a good mood and I need you to clean this entire house top to bottom before we return from the ball tonight. I also need the basement and attic to be organized, the wash done and folded, and all the mending to be done." Nami's smile fell farther with each task that was assigned to her, there was no way she could finish it all and still make it to the ball. "Oh and don't forget that you need to help us dress and undress for the ball, you may go now," the dragon shooed her out.

She finished delivering breakfast with a much sadder attitude, not even wanting to sigh when Kalifa told her that saying her name was sexual harassment. Sadly Nami began to work on the tasks that she was assigned. She worked quickly hoping that she might possibly be able to finish but all hope was dashed when she was called to help her step-family get ready for the ball and she was nowhere close to being done. She tried to put on a happy face as she help her sisters and mother into the dresses they had bought with the money that was supposed to be hers.

"When we return we will expect you to help us undress," her mother said as she was halfway out the door, "be sure to be awake and I expect all of your chores to be done by then." Nami nodded as they wrapped their shawls around them and left the house. She almost cried that she couldn't go to the ball when she heard a knock on the door, had they forgotten something?

"Yes," Nami said as she opened the door.

"I know they did something to keep you here," Habille said as she pushed past Nami into the house.

"What are you doing here?" Nami said in a shocked tone.

"I knew that you would need help getting ready for the ball," she responded.

"I can't go to the ball, they gave me so many chores that it will be hard to finish them by the time they get home."

"Well that won't do, I will help you get ready then you will go to the ball and leave the chores to me."

"I couldn't do that," Nami started.

"Oh hush and leave it to me, I don't want to go to the ball anyway, not really my thing."

"Habille your are my fairy god mother," Nami gushed and they hurried up stairs to get her ready. They chose the black dress for the first day, it was easier to move in for her to get money for her other dresses and accessories. She reached into her hidden stash of her mother's jewelry that she had kept hidden from her new family since she had first met them and pulled out a chain of black jewels. They put them on her neck and Habille put her hair up in a twist. Nami added her cat mask and they hurried to her sisters room to grab a pair of strappy black heels that went well with her dress. Finally she was ready but she suddenly realized that she didn't have a way to get to the castle.

"Oh don't worry about that," Habille responded when Nami told her the transportation problem. "Just look outside." Nami did as she was told and gasped.

"How… where… wha?" she gasped.

"It's my dads, he's had it for a while and gasped," Habille responded, "now get in and go." Nami nodded and got into the pure black carriage that Habille had lent her. She sat on the black leather seats and looked out the window to see the coach driver ready with the six black horses, he looked at her, she nodded and they were off.

She was thrilled as the castle came into sight and she made sure that her mask was secure, she couldn't let herself be recognized. The door was opened and a hand extended to help her out. She nodded in thanks to the man who had helped her then told her coach driver to be here at midnight on the dot to allow her time to get home. She took a deep breath and entered the ballroom.

She was immediately bombarded with colors and sounds swirling around her. She took in all the beautiful dresses and noticed how there seemed to be three females for every male. She thought about dancing for a moment before picking out a man at the refreshments table that she could corner and drain information about the palace out of.

"May I ask you to dance?" she asked the blonde haired man with a swirl mask on.

"Of course my fair lady," the man responded as he bent down to kiss her hand then whisked her out on the dance floor. Nami managed to get very little information out of him as he felt the need to spend almost the entire time complimenting her, that got old extremely fast. She felt glares on her back as she chose another guy and then another, her dress seemed to be a magnet to the limited number of guys there were. After her fourth dance partner she was annoyed with the lack of information that she had gained and decided to take a break on the balcony.

She leaned over on her arms and sighed as she took in the view, it was beautiful but she wished that she could find a way to get enough money from here to afford another dress. Suddenly she heard footsteps behind her and turned quickly to face whoever had joined her, it was a man with a sword mask.

"Tired of the ball?" Nami asked trying to make small talk to maybe wean information out of him.

"Yeah," he sighed, "you?"

"I couldn't stay in their for another moment."

"Didn't think that there would be a girl here that would ever get tired of one of those marriage pits," the man responded causing Nami to laugh.

"Well you could say I'm not normal," she replied.

"I can see that," he said, "you are out here aren't you?"

"Yeah, do you know much about the palace?" she asked changing the topic to try and get information.

"You could say that," he replied, "what do you want to know?"

"Oh it's just that my father was a banker and my mother handled antiques and they were both interested in the palace," she fed him her carefully rehearsed story, it wasn't even a total lie, they had done those things but more as hobbies. She noticed him tense for a moment and knew that she was walking on thin ice with his suspicion.

**Zoro pov**

"In my opinion it is over decorated but the people in high places seem to enjoy it," he replied to the sexily dressed woman suspicious of her intent. At first he had been drawn in by the fact that she had left the party and her dress had helped his decision to join her on the balcony. He might not be interested in the personalities of almost every woman he knew but he was still a guy and she had nice curves with a dress that accented them perfectly. He had been intrigued by her mask, it hid her face completely unlike the barely covering the area between their eyes ones that almost every girl had inside. The woman this afternoon had mentioned that is was because they felt that they were beautiful and wanted him to notice too.

"I can imagine it would be with all the extra tax money that they take in." Apparently she was bitter, she must have had a bad experience with taxes at some point in time, or maybe just hated that people had too much money.

"I suppose," he responded, he was even more suspicious that she might want money now. He wanted to keep an eye on her but he knew that his absence would soon be noticed. His father had eaten up the masquerade idea but had made sure that he had an original mask and could be easily recognized.

"Could you please direct me to the nearest bathroom?" the girl asked cutting into his thoughts.

"I will escort you there," he responded, glad that she had given him an excuse to both keep an eye on her and get out of the ball for a short period of time.

"There is no need for that, if you can just point me in the correct direction I am sure I could find my way."

"I insist," he had to maintain his politeness but he would soon get his way, he had been extremely surprised that she had refused, didn't she want to be showered with affection? Especially since he might be the prince that every girl was here for a chance to marry and become the queen of this kingdom.

"I don't want to impose, and you must have so many girls just dying to dance with you just within those doors," she obviously wanted to get rid of him and there was an annoyed tone hidden behind her polite words.

"It would be no inconvenience," he replied stubbornly unused to being refused by a woman, the ones that knew he was a prince would just fall all over him whether he wanted them to or not, even a smile could start a rave.

"I'm afraid I must…"

"This isn't going anywhere," Zoro cut in as she began to refuse him once more, "I suggest that you just agree with my proposition."

"Why do you even care?" she shot back all pleasantries aside.

"I want an excuse to get out of that ball, if I am seen escorting a lady they won't have anything to complain about."

"So now I am an excuse, how wonderful, isn't that just every girls dream."

"Arrrg I should have paid more attention in that manners class this morning, I'm sorry, will you please let me escort you to the bathroom so I can leave the pit of matchmakers and gold diggers?"

"Well since you put it that way I will let you, but only escort me it is already 11:30 and I have to leave at midnight so there is no reason for you to wait since I will not be re entering the ball."

"Fine," Zoro agreed as he held out his arm for her to take and when she did he escorted her around the edges of the ballroom doing his best to only be seen by one messenger assigned to make sure he was doing his duty and then left the room. He took her through a few halls and soon they were at the bathroom. "I do believe this is where we will part," he said as he took her hand and kissed it, that was something he remembered from the manners class.

"Well I do believe there is a gentleman in you yet," the woman said with a slight laugh, "now leave me, we will not meet again tonight." With that she entered the room leaving him alone in the hall.

**Nami pov**

She listened at the door until she heard his footsteps retreating away, she was annoyed that he had followed her all the way here but he had left know and she was alone in the halls with the perfect chance to steal a few trinkets and get out of there. She opened the door a crack and saw that the hallway was empty, she quietly left the room and moved towards the direction of where the treasury would most likely be. She had been here a few times as a child and had a faint memory of the time she had found the place where they kept the tax money that had yet to be counted. She crept down the hall like a cat burglar and soon enough she realized that once again her memory had not failed her and she was indeed at the treasury.

She peaked inside the door and found it empty but full of money, any girls dream. She then slipped in and began to stuff rolls of cash in her bra, it was a great spot to hide stuff and no one would think to check there, if they did she could pull a Kalifa and scream sexual harassment. When she knew she had taken enough to pay for the rest of the dresses she would wear with accessories she slipped back into the hallway and made her way to the main door to leave. She didn't see another soul during her walk but made sure she had her story of she had gotten lost in her mind until she exited the door and made her way into the carriage and from there home.

When she arrived she hurried up to her room to change into her maid dress noticing along the way that Habille had made everything spotless just like she had promised. She smiled as she entered her room to find Habille fast asleep in her bed and gently shook her to wake her up. She thanked her friend then sent her home before changing and making hot chocolate in the kitchen for when the rest of her family returned home. When they did arrive her mother and Porche were talking quite loudly alerting Nami to their presence before they even got to the door. She opened the door for them and presented them with the hot drink before they went up to bed with her following to help them undress. When she had finished that task Nami went into her own bedroom to change into a night gown, she put the cash from her bra under the floor boards and went to sleep with a smile on her face, for once excited about what the next day would bring.

**Once again please review, it feeds me and motivates me to update faster, I am in finals week though so next update may be slow and I am working on my other ZoNa story at the same time so may be a while, but a shorter while if you review and make me happy :D**


	2. Days of the ball 2 and 3

**Sorry that it's been so long, I would like to say I have a good excuse and for some parts I do, school was going insane, but really I didn't have inspiration and this chapter was going to cover another day as well but I decided I better get this up know cause I feel like writing more when I get reviews. Sorry for making you wait for so long but I am on spring break so I should get the next chapter started when I'm on the plane tomorrow. If anyone cares I'm going to Arizona to visit my last great-grandparent. Anyway I have a competition for you, guess what two languages Habille speaks. Hint: look at her name and one of the language's is the one this is written in.**

Given how late it had been when she had gone to bed the night before it was surprising that she dragged herself out of bed at a reasonable hour the next morning. Yawning she got out of her bed and put on her maid dress, she knew that if she hurried she could get to the shop to buy more dresses for the next few days. She hurried to grab her coat and quickly left the house to try and buy dresses before her mother and sisters awoke and found her gone, she couldn't let them know what she was doing or all hell would break loose. She hurried to the shop and was not surprised to find that she was almost the only one there. She nodded to the woman at the register and quickly searched to find more dresses for the ball.

"This one's nice," she said to herself as she picked up a strapless red dress that would end about mid thigh, it was another one that was considered far to scandalous to even consider by most of the town but it was perfect for a girl who enjoyed showing off her curves, why wouldn't she when she could get things for it. She grabbed about 10 or so more dresses and headed into the dressing room to pick out the five best to buy for the next few days of the ball, she did need to get a very special one for the last day and figured she could probably head over to the dressmaker the next day to request a gown for the last night.

She sighed as she tried on the last dress, she could only find three that she liked, the red one that she had seen first, a deep purple one that was form fitting on top with spaghetti straps and a full skirt, and a dark blue one with gold sparkles coating it that had a full skirt and left her shoulders bare. She decided that those would have to do and she could spend the rest of the money she had taken on shoes and accessories for the dresses and she could get more money for the last two dresses that she needed tonight at the ball. She hurried to pay for the dresses and choose the shoes before realizing the time and rushing home to hide her purchases and prepare breakfast before her mother and sisters woke up, they would not be in a good mood after that late night and without a marriage proposal.

She somehow managed to finish hiding her purchases and prepare breakfast before the bell rang telling her that her mother wanted something. She grabbed the tray of breakfast that she had made for the dragon woman and hurried up the stairs to see what she wanted.

"Shut my blinds and fetch my breakfast," the woman groaned when Nami entered the room.

"Yes mother dearest," she responded and hurried to comply with her mothers demands, she had to please her so she wouldn't suspect anything and Nami wouldn't have an ungodly amount of tasks assigned for her to complete before she could manage to sneak off to the ball.

"Shoo now," the woman said from under her covers when she heard her tray being set next to her and Nami hurried to comply with that request, it was, after all, her favorite one.

"NAMI," she heard an obnoxious shout from her second eldest sister's room and knew that Porche wanted her breakfast.

"One moment Porche-chan," she said as she rushed back down to the kitchen to grab the breakfast trays for her two sisters knowing that if Porche was awake then Kalifa had probably been up for an hour.

"Finally," the long nosed girl said as she flopped back onto her bed, "I thought I was going to starve."

"I'm sorry Porche-chan," the red haired woman as she sat the tray on her older sisters bed.

"Don't let it happen again," the blue haired one responded then began to eat. Next Nami quickly hurried into her eldest sister's room.

"You're tracking dirt," the older girl said without looking up as Nami entered her room.

"I am sorry Kalifa," Nami said as she hurried to give her sister the breakfast tray and get out of there.

"Just be sure to clean it up later," the woman said not looking up from her books.

"Yes Kalifa," the red haired girl replied as she shut the door behind her. She let out her breath when she was safely in the hallway relived that she had gotten away from her eldest sister without any incident, after a moment she shook her head and started on cleaning the house knowing that she wouldn't be able to go anywhere if there was a single speck of dirt left.

**Zoro's pov**

He groaned as he heard a knocking on the door and hoped it would stop, when it didn't he growled.

"What do you want," he asked angrily without bothering to remove the arm that was covering his eyes when the door opened.

"Your father has requested your presence in the throne room, Prince Zoro."

"What time is it?" the green haired man growled in response.

"Why it is 10 a.m. your highness," the messenger replied in his high voice.

"It's too early to get up," the prince responded, he hadn't gotten to go to bed until past three in the morning and he needed more sleep than that.

"Your father insists Prince Zoro," a deeper voice said from the doorway and Zoro recognized it as his father's right hand man, if he was here that meant his father would not take no for an answer.

"Give me five minutes," Zoro sighed as he removed the arm that had been covering his eyes and sat up.

"As you wish," the older man replied and closed the door taking the messenger with him.

Yawning Zoro got out of his warm bed, stretched, and got ready to see what his father wanted. He walked lazily down the hall to the throne room ignoring all the servants that passed him in the hall as he rubbed his eye tiredly still yawning. Finally he reached the large doors that opened into his father's favorite room, the one he insisted on having all of his meetings in, even with his own son. He stopped briefly to wait for the men stationed at either side to open the doors before he entered the large ornately decorated room. He took in his father sitting on the overly decorated throne with a long deep red cape with leopard fur trim.

"Good morning son, I trust you slept well," the man on the throne said to his almost twenty year old son.

"Not really," the son responded with another yawn receiving a glare from his father for it.

"It has come to my attention that you did not give significant attention to the ladies at the ball last night, and I was informed that you even took the liberty to leave the ball twice," the man said getting more and more irritated as he continued. "I expect you to find a bride by the end of this week and that is not possible if you continue to avoid the presence of all the eligible women who attend the ball. And must I remind you that this ball is given in your honor!"

"They only want to marry the prince to get the money and the power," Zoro responded bitterly.

"You still have to find a bride by the end of this week, you will find a woman that you will be able to tolerate and you will produce an heir before I die or I will abdicate in favor of lord Crocodile." Zoro cringed as he thought of the cruel man that his father had named, he knew that if that man had control over the kingdom no one would live happily.

"You know that he would destroy this kingdom!" Zoro shot at his father now fully awake.

"Then you must find a bride, there must be at least one woman that you have an interest in," the king said with a slight pleading in his voice, he must know just as well as Zoro what Crocodile would do to their kingdom. Suddenly the woman with the cat mask popped into his mind and he shook his head trying to dislodge the image. Sure she had seemed different than the others but she had been at the ball, why would she have come if she didn't have the vapid wish to marry the prince for some reason or another.

"As you wish father," Zoro said looking away.

"Now that that's settled you have lessons today in manners, dancing and reading body language, you may now go to breakfast that you will be spending with the manners master," his father said as he ushered the prince out of the throne room. Annoyed Zoro walked down the hall to the dining room to begin his day of lessons.

A few hours of lessons later Zoro was finally allowed to go free only to be told that he had to get ready for the ball instantly. He made his way out of his bathroom where he had just finished his bath and put on the suit the dress maker had allocated for the second night of the ball. When he had the suit set straight he picked up his mask, it was plain white with three swords in the center and took one last look at himself in the mirror before covering his face.

**Nami's pov**

She picked up the aqua ball gown that she had bought two days before and held it up to herself in front of the mirror.

"I like it," Habille commented as she entered the room behind Nami, "now let's put it on."

"Thank you for helping me with this Habille, but you really should come to the ball too, I finished everything that they assigned me so there is no reason for you to miss out on it tonight," Nami responded as she began to take off her maid dress.

"Balls aren't really my cup of tea," the girl said, "I would much rather stay home and read, which is what I will be doing as soon as you leave."

"Suit yourself I guess," Nami responded with a glance back at her friend before she began to put on the aqua gown, "now can you please help me button this up?"

"No problem," the other girl said and soon Nami was dressed. A pair of light blue shoes went missing from Porche's room and a necklace with sapphires was produced with a matching bracelet from her stash of her mother's old jewelry. Habille curled her short red hair and soon Nami was ready to attend the ball, she would be there far earlier than she had the night before.

"Thank you so much Habille," the red haired girl said as she got into the carriage her friend provided, "you really are my fairy godmother." With that she put on her cat mask and shut the door to the carriage and they were off to the palace.

**Zoro's pov**

He felt irritated and disappointed for some reason and he couldn't figure out what it was, sure he was irritated about the whole ball and the fact that his father had basically blackmailed him into going by threatening him with Crocodile, but why on earth was he disappointed. Growling slightly he caught himself looking towards the balcony for what had to be more than the tenth time in the past hour, shaking his head he turned back to the woman he was dancing with knowing that if he didn't pay attention her feet would soon turn black and blue. He ignored the high-pitched voice of the girl with the red mask and long nose dancing with him, she seemed to think that she was the most interesting girl in the world and he was bored out of his mind, with a headache besides.

The moment the song ended he dropped his hands away from the woman in front of him and hurried to mix in with the crowd, he would have to dance with another woman soon or he would be chided but he refused to dance with that woman again, his ears couldn't take it. He made his way to a secluded part of the room hoping that the women standing around there would be more bearable than the one he had just escaped. He glanced around the women standing at the back wall and shook his head, everyone seemed like a vapid matchmaker and he had to get some air, he couldn't deal with these women for any longer. Somehow he got to the balcony without much incident; luckily no one knew that he was the prince so he could make his way through the throngs of marriage grabbers without too many women throwing themselves at him.

When he finally exited the ball room he noticed that he wasn't alone on the balcony and groaned as he took in the aqua ball gown on the woman before him. She was facing away so he couldn't see her mask but he noticed her short red hair and felt his heart start to speed up, the woman with the cat mask had had red hair.

'_I'm not hoping it's that infernal woman!'_ Zoro thought in denial when he realized where his thoughts were headed, _'if I'm lucky I won't have to see her tonight at all.'_ Shaking his head slightly to dismiss all thoughts of the cat masked woman he walked over to the edge of the balcony where he couldn't easily be seen from inside the ball room and was still a good distance away from the other creature who had decided to leave the ball. He sighed as he leaned over the railing and noticed the woman turn her face towards him out of the corner of his eye. When he saw the cat mask covering her face he felt a wave of happiness that he fought down with all the discipline that he had.

"You again," the woman spoke causing Zoro to fight not to turn his head towards her, he would not pay more attention to this strange woman than any of the others! "Trying to escape from the marriage pit again?"

"Yes," he responded trying to sound casual and not look over at the woman but gave in when he saw her moving towards him. Glancing over casually he took in the woman who seemed so different from all the rest while trying to maintain a casual façade, even in his mind he didn't admit that he was disappointed with the much more conservative and appropriate for the situation dress she had on.

"Why did you even come to the ball then?" the woman asked stopping a few feet away from him.

"It's not like I didn't try to get out of it but there is no way they would let me not attend," the man responded turning to fully face her hoping that he hadn't given away to much information.

"It's so strange that there are some people that gave an arm and a leg to be here and here you are wishing that you could just leave already," the woman said as she leaned her back against the railing and tilted her head up to see the stars.

"They only want to marry the Prince," he responded in a slightly disgusted tone, "they want the money and power that goes with it without any care for the duties or the Prince himself. Why should I care what they had to do to get here?"

"And do you know why some of them want that money, every eligible girl in the kingdom is here not just the rich vapid ones, some of these girls grew up on the streets and gave everything they had for a dress to attend this ball and get the Prince to ask their hand in marriage! And what about this Prince who thinks that he can find an appropriate bride in seven days by seeing how she dances! How is a girl who is fit for the position of queen supposed to be chosen by the quality of her waltz?" the woman was standing straight now with her chest heaving from the exertion of telling him off and he was taken aback by her words, he hadn't thought about the girls and she had just named some of his exact thoughts on this ball, how was he supposed to know who was good for the kingdom after just seven days.

"Have you ever thought that maybe the Prince didn't have any say in the matter," Zoro responded annoyed that she had judged him without even knowing him, sure he had judged all the girls in the ball but that was on a completely different level. "Did it ever cross your mind that maybe the king set this ball up without the Prince's knowledge or approval?"

"Even if that was how it happened," the woman responded hotly, "it still doesn't change the fact that he agreed to this ball and the idea that he could find a wife in seven days with only the knowledge of how well she dances!"

"And what if the Prince was blackmailed into this event and into agreeing that he would find a wife or else lose the kingdom to Crocodile!" Zoro shot back trying not to yell but when the woman was silent he realized his mistake, a normal person wouldn't know this much about the ball and even the tidbit about Crocodile was classified.

"Well it seems like my trip out here had the wrong affect," a woman's voice said causing Zoro to turn and see a woman with long blonde hair and glasses. She was wearing a white mask with bubbles on it that barely covered the area around her eyes. Zoro glanced at the woman with the cat mask and saw her trying to not to be noticed. He was confused for a moment then decided that he had better get off the balcony before the cat woman had any chance to realize that he was the Prince.

"May I ask you to dance?" he said to the blonde woman who had just entered the balcony.

"Why I see my beauty has worked wonders," the woman responded as she flipped her hair back and Zoro felt the sickening feeling of great regret as he wished he could take back his offer from this self centered woman. "I thank you for noticing my beauty and I will allow you a dance with me," she said as she took his hand and dragged him into the ballroom.

**Nami's pov**

That had been close, she had been very careful to avoid her sisters but she had almost been caught by Kalifa, she had been too distracted by the man with the sword mask. Slowly she felt the fear of being discovered go away as her irritation with the swordsman flow back into her. She looked at the large clock on the balcony wall to discover that it was already 11, she decided that she was in no state to return to the ball and opted to explore the money storage room once again. She readjusted her dress on her shoulders before taking a deep breath and re-entering the ball taking great care to avoid the dragon lady, her step-sisters, and the man with the swords mask. She slipped along the wall glad that her dress didn't draw an insane amount of attention to her as she slipped out one of the doors and made her way to where she remembered the money storage room was.

When she arrived at her desired destination she looked around making sure that the hallway was empty, it wouldn't do to be caught taking from the castle's stores, then entered the room quickly and quietly. After shutting the door she looked around at the piles and piles of money stacked thought the room and quickly began stuffing as much of it as she could into her bra, her last two dresses had to be breathtaking. Suddenly she heard footsteps outside the door and hid herself behind a pile of money just in time to hear the door open. Afraid to even breath she listened to the person slowly walk around the room hoping that they would leave. After what felt like an eternity she heard a sigh and the door open and close leaving her alone in the room.

Still wary she peered around the pile of money she was hidden behind to make sure she was in the clear before she stood up and snuck over to the door. She listened out making sure that the hallway was empty before she opened the door and ducked out into the hallway to make her way to the carriage. Little did she know that her flight from the scene of her crime hadn't gone unnoticed by everyone.

When she got home Nami quickly got out of her ball gown and removed all traces that she had even left the house from her appearance. It only took her a few minutes to be ready for her mother and sisters arrival and by the time they did come home she was half asleep. She helped them remove their dresses and gave them each a mug of hot chocolate before she finally went to bed with the knowledge that she had to get up extremely early to be able to slip away to the dressmakers to get her dress for the final night.

Shortly after the sun rose the next morning a red haired woman stretched and pulled herself out of bed tiredly, she had had late nights two days in a row and it was hard to keep getting up early. Yawing she pulled on her work dress and got her stash of money out from under the floor boards before quietly leaving the house making sure she didn't wake her mother or sisters. Shivering in the cold she pulled her shawl tightly around her as she made her way to the dress shop to get the dressmaker to work on a dress for the final night of the ball. She hurried through the snow dusted streets leaving the first blemish without regard for the white perfection she was ruining.

An hour or so and a few shops later the red haired girl finally headed home, she hadn't counted on how busy they would be already from all the orders and it had taken a long time and a lot of extra money to get anyone to agree to make a dress for her. She rushed to the baker irritated that she didn't have enough left over money to buy a dress for the second to last day as well but figured she could probably get money from the palace one last time to afford one last dress. She shook her head wondering why she even cared to go to the ball at all, sure there was a thrill in going after she had been forbidden by the dragon woman but other than that she wasn't a big fan of balls. She didn't want to marry the prince and she didn't know what else she could get out of any of the men there and if there was no benefit to her why was she even going? She had the dresses so there was no reason to not go now but she still couldn't come up with one reason that made it worthwhile for her to attend the ball.

Even on her way home from town she still had no legit reason to keep attending the ball, sure it was fun to be adored by all the men and to have an excuse to dress up but that was no reason to waste the only nights she would ever have free of any work dancing the night away with men whose faces she couldn't even see, and on top of all that she had to spend the entire time avoiding the dragon lady, egoist-idol, and sexual harassment bubbles! Groaning at the annoyance of it all she almost decided to just skip the ball that night, the only moderately interesting person there had been the man with the swords mask but he had turned out to be an egotistical baka. She frowned as she remembered their conversation from the night before and knew that even if she did return to the ball she would be missing a bantering partner and would be stuck spending the whole time dancing with people like the guy in the swirl mask who was a complete pervert.

Convinced that she would skip the ball that night she hurried back to her house to prepare breakfast for the three annoying women she was forced to serve and finished just as the bell from the dragon lady Alvida's room rang alerting Nami that she wanted something.

"Yes mother," she said in a nauseatingly sweet voice as she entered the dragon's lair with the breakfast tray.

"Took you long enough, I even took you in after your father died and this is how you treat the most beautiful woman on earth! My word with these manners it's no wonder you weren't invited to the ball." Nami cringed at those words and felt her face flush with anger.

"You forget that it is only because of my father that you live here at all and take advantage of what's rightfully mine! And I was invited to the ball…" she was cut off by a scream of rage as the dragon woman leaped out of her bed and came after her with a very large metal club.

"YOU DARE LIE TO MY BEAUTY!" the woman screeched as Nami widened her eyes and rushed out of the room slamming the door before she could get hit. Breathing hard she leaned against the door and heard the screaming coming from inside the door. She caught her breath and hurried away to Porche's room to give her sister breakfast.

"Took you long enough," the long nosed, blue haired girl said from her bed, "I was about to die of hunger and my followers would not have been happy."

"I'm sorry Porche-chan," Nami said trying her hardest to use the sweet voice her sister expected.

"Well you can't just leave an idol waiting, especially when I have the ball tonight, you are so lucky that you don't have to impress anyone at night. It's so hard to keep all of the men happy, they all want to dance with me, sometimes it's so hard to be an idol," she said in a tone that made it obvious that she didn't mean any of what she said.

"Why do you think you are an idol?" Nami said quietly too irritated to keep up the cheerful façade.

"What?" her sister responded eyes flashing, "did you say something?"

"I just asked why you think you are an idol," Nami responded unable to hold her eight years of irritation in for a moment longer.

"How dare you insult the biggest idol in the kingdom," Porche responded jumping out of bed with her hand poised to give Nami a slap.

"There's no way that you could possibly be the biggest idol when you look like that!" Nami screeched before putting, well sorta throwing, down the breakfast tray and rushing from the room unable to bear the presence of her step-sister for another moment. Slamming the door behind her she took a deep breath to calm down and grabbed the last breakfast tray to give to her eldest sister. Shaking her head she opened the door to the bedroom of her last family member that wasn't out to kill her…yet.

"Took you long enough," the blonde woman said quietly without looking up from the book in front of her on the table.

"Sorry Kalifa," Nami said quietly unable to put on the cheerful tone she usually coated her voice with before talking to her step-family. "Here's your breakfast," she said in the same slightly annoyed tone as she set the tray down on her sister desk with little care.

"That's sexual harassment and your tone shows that you are obviously jealous of my perfect beauty," the blonde woman said looking up at Nami and pushing her glasses up her nose.

"How is saying your name sexual harassment?" Nami said still irritated from that morning and the previous eight years she had been stuck with the three conniving egoists.

"Your jealousy is unbecoming, that is one of the reasons that we thought it was best that you didn't go to the ball, you would just embarrass yourself." The woman obviously thought that she was doing Nami a favor.

"Oh so not letting me go to the ball was a favor? So you didn't do it just because it was something that you could force me not to do?" she snapped before turning and storming out of the room in a beeline for the attic. She sat down on her bed and trembled with rage filled with the knowledge that she had to go to the ball, it was one way that she could get back at them and there was no way that she was going to give them the satisfaction of her bending to their will.

**Zoro's pov**

Yawning Zoro sat up in his bed and stretched before pausing to wonder what had woke him up when the image of the woman with the cat mask sneaking out of the treasury popped into his mind and all other thoughts were forgotten. Leaning back against the headboard of his king sized bed he thought about all the signs that had pointed to the fact that she was a thief. He remembered how on the first night of the ball she had been asking about the valuables at the palace and how she had been in such a hurry to get away, so she could steal no doubt. He growled as he remembered their fight the previous night and how when he had gone after her to apologize he had gotten lost, yes he got lost in his own home, and then had heard noises in the treasury. He remembered going in to check it out but when he hadn't seen anyone he had hid and watched the door, he then remembered when the door had opened and he remembered his surprise when the woman he had been looking for was the one to step out of that door. He then remembered how he was so shocked, even though know he knew he should have seen it coming, that he wasn't able to move from his hiding spot and she had left while he was frozen with shock.

He knew that he would have to confront her when he saw her that night; he couldn't let her steal no matter what the reason. He thought back to their conversation and cursed the fact that the only girl at the entire ball that he would even consider marrying and she ended up being a thief. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair as he thought about the argument they had got in the night before and how even though it had been an argument he had still enjoyed being with her during that time. He started thinking about the actual content of their argument but got cut off by a knock at his door and he knew that he would have to get up.

Almost an hour later he was once again standing in front of his father getting chided that he hadn't shown adequate attention to any of the marriage obsessed women. He thought of the red haired woman again and felt a pang of sadness when he remembered what she was. After sitting through a lecture on proper behavior he was dismissed to another full day of lessons on how to behave and how to dance correctly along with an hour lecture on how to choose an appropriate wife and how to tell if a woman had the proper breeding by the way she took a drink, he struggled not to roll his eyes during that entire lesson. Eventually he was again subjected to the pain and torture of being forced to sit through another fitting and getting ready for the third night of the ball.

Eventually he was buttoned into another suit, handed his mask, and thrust into the ballroom that was already teeming with marriage hopefuls and random males that had been blackmailed, okay not really, into attending. Sighing Zoro made his way into the crowd and was immediately surrounded by every woman who didn't have a dance partner already and after receiving a hard look from one of his father's men he chose the hand of a long nosed woman with a small red mask who laughed annoyingly the moment he grabbed her hand.

"Oh men just can't resist their instinct to dance with the biggest idol in the kingdom," she said in her annoying nasally voice as he lead her out onto the dance floor already regretting choosing her. After a few moments she was visibly irked by his silence and began to try an engage him in conversation, something that he obviously didn't want as he kept ignoring her and keeping an eye out for the woman with the cat mask. After five more dances, all with different woman there was no way that Zoro could handle one of those vapid soulless beings for more than one dance, he couldn't take another moment in the dance and escaped to the balcony where he got his first sighting of the night of the woman with the cat mask.

"And the thief appears," he said under his breath but she somehow heard him and turned to face him giving him a great view of her cleavage from the tight and revealing top of her purple dress.

"And the know it all feels the need to insult apparently," the woman snapped back.

"And the cats claws are out," Zoro responded annoyed with the woman, she had no right to be angry at him…yet. "You'd think that a person would be a bit nicer to someone that they stole from," he said and saw her stiffen.

"What do you know?" she asked him in a low voice.

"Do you really want me to say it in a place where someone could easily hear?" he asked, not that he really cared at that point but he didn't want any of his father's men interrupting in the middle.

"Well than where will you tell me?" she asked still speaking so softly that he could barely hear.

"Follow me," he growled before taking her arm, he had to give the appearance that he was interested in that woman or run the risk of a major scolding, and basically dragged her through the ball room and partway down the hall to a semi hidden area where they could have some privacy.

"Now what do you know?" she said the moment he pulled her into the hidden alcove.

"Only that I saw you sneaking out of the treasury with some money sticking out of the top of your dress," he said as he scanned the hallway to make sure they were alone.

"And what are you planning to do about it?" she asked and he could detect a quiver of fear in her voice.

"I want to know why you did it," he responded finally turning to face her, sure he was annoyed as all heck at her and she was extremely irritating but he couldn't forget what she had said the night before and he had to at least give her a chance.

"To be able to afford to come to this ball in the first place, though I don't know why I even bothered in the first place given as I don't even like these things," the last part she said under her breath but Zoro caught it and it peaked his interest as he had been wondering the very same thing himself.

"Then why did you come?" he asked, curiosity overwhelming his original reason for calling her out.

"I couldn't give them the satisfaction of not attending after what they did," she muttered angrily.

"And what exactly did they do?" he asked completely engrossed in her tale though there was still an undertone of irritation in his voice, it takes a lot to get rid of that though.

"Forbade from attending the ball," she said in a menacing tone.

"And you couldn't listen to them why?" he asked getting annoyed with this woman.

"There's no way I would give those bitches the satisfaction me actually listening to them! They just act all high and mighty because the dragon woman married my father and when he died she was able to take over the house! It's not even theirs to take but they make the rightful owner act like a fricken slave to them just because she can't leave her parents house!" the woman exploded causing Zoro to take a step back, that sure explained things.

"And you don't leave them why?" he asked, sure it was her parents house but he didn't understand why she couldn't just either force them out or leave herself.

"I'm not leaving my parents house with no protection, as it is now I can protect the house and some of my parents most important things, if I leave they will ruin everything more than they already have," she said this in a tone that revealed just how much she was torn up over what she had to go through. The small amount of pity he felt for this girl, it wasn't an emotion that came easily to him, was halted by the shock and fear he felt when he heard footsteps in the hall, it wouldn't be good if they were discovered. If it was a woman he knew that they would try to drag him back for a dance and if it was one of his father's men then he would get chided for leaving the ball with an unknown woman. He didn't understand why but he had been told not to give too much special attention to any woman, it didn't make much sense given that he had to know what they were like before he married them but he wasn't allowed to argue with his father's wishes. Following his instincts he pulled the woman in front of him as close to his chest as he could manage and backed up into the corner where they were unlikely to be noticed.

"Keep quiet," he whispered and felt her nod slightly against his shoulder. They both held their breaths and listened to the footsteps in the hall and he knew that his heartbeat sped up slightly when the footsteps slowed down near where they were hidden, this must have been how she had felt last night when he had almost caught her in the treasury. Wait the treasury! He had been confronting her about stealing gah how could he get so off topic! He almost groaned in annoyance before remembering that they had to stay hidden, they didn't know who was in the hallway but it was likely that they would get in trouble if caught. Finally the footsteps went away and Zoro realized in what a compromising position they really were in. He blushed as he identified the objects pressed against his chest and how close he was holding this thief woman that just a few minutes ago he had been confronting.

"I think they are gone," the woman spoke starting to move away from him and he quickly dropped his arms when he felt her struggle, suddenly very glad for the mask that hid his blush.

**Nami's pov**

She felt the heat on her face as she backed away from the man she had just accidently embraced, suddenly extremely happy for the full face mask that she wore. She couldn't bring her eyes to meet the ones of the man, not knowing what else to do she turned to start to go back to the ball when she felt someone grab her hand. She turned to see the man with the sword mask looking down at their hands.

"Yes," she said quietly, wondering what he was doing but still feeling that little bubble of happiness, which she, of course, ignored.

"I, um, don't want to go back just yet," he responded obviously making it up as he went along, "and I don't think you want to be in that throng of marriage vampires either."

"That's true," she said as he let go of her hand and she turned back towards him and saw him nod in agreement and the tension leave his body. "So what do you want to talk about?" she asked after a few moments of awkward silence.

"…Do you like sword fights?" he asked after a moment of consideration.

"I can't say that I have ever seen one, but I've read about them and they look interesting enough." She responded and the conversation continued from there spanning a multitude of topics from their favorite foods to their opinions of all the women in the ball room. They were so engrossed in their conversation that they didn't notice the approaching footsteps until a servant spoke, causing both of them to jump, though Zoro would deny it, from surprise.

"Your presence is requested back in the ball room," the man spoke in a formal tone obviously addressing the man with the sword mask.

"Ah yes," he responded causing Nami to wonder who he was to be important enough to be requested in the ball, but she supposed that they had so many more women than men that they needed all the men to be in the ballroom at all points in time.

"Well bye, I guess," Nami said as he waved then walked away and she pushed down the disappointment that she felt before realizing that she had to get back to her house, she was in enough trouble with the Dragon lady and the spawns of evil already, she didn't need to be caught directly disobeying their orders as well. She found a clock and sighed when she realized that she didn't have time for a journey to the treasury without cutting her return dangerously close and shook her head with slight disappointment as she went to go find her carriage.

**Zoro's pov**

He felt disappointment surface as he walked back into the noisy ballroom, he had really enjoyed talking to that woman, and she seemed to be the only decent woman in this whole vat of egotistical matchmakers. He suddenly remembered why he had called her out in the first place and mentally wacked himself on the head for being so stupid, she was a thief and there he was giving her a good image in his mind. He heard a part of his mind argue that she was a good person and she had a reason but pushed it down with his iron will, there was no room for sympathy when you were dealing with a thief.

**Thank you for reading :D there is a competition at the top and please please please review, it makes me want to write so next chapter will be up faster if you do**


	3. Days of the ball 4, 5, and 6

**Yay I finally updated :D Sorry it's been so long, I was having total writers block and a ton of homework :p So anyway I started using allusions in this chapter cause I felt like it and to answer the question I asked last time, yes Habille speaks French and English. Congrats to jesushomie who, by the way, was the only one who guessed. So jesushomie you may chose a prize, it's between a virtual cookie, a virtual hug, or a personalized fanfiction written just for you by yours truly (in case you don't know that means me) So anyway please review cause it makes me want to write and therefore I update faster, also there is only one chapter left.**

_A woman with short red hair and a cat mask that covered the top half of her face ran up to him smiling causing him to break into a grin as she grabbed his hand and dragged him towards a sparkling blue lake in the middle of a forest. He followed along still grinning in true happiness as he gazed at the half masked woman before him. When they reached the water she spun around to face him and he wrapped her in his arms cutting off her joyful laugh by pressing his lips against hers. The two embraced before the woman pulled away, still smiling, and pulled him to the lake, soon enough they were splashing around. He heard her playfully say his name as she laughed and he felt a bubble of warmth arise in his chest and his face broke into an even larger grin as he locked her in another embrace. _

He woke up with a smile on his face that vanished the moment he realized what had happened, his dream had shown the forbidden fruit and he had enjoyed it. He felt part of himself argue that he shouldn't turn her away but he used the majority to squash it, he couldn't feel anything for a conniving thief. He looked out the window to see the sun rising but knew that he wouldn't be able to sleep anymore that night, he would have to sneak away for a nap later, but for now he would train. Five minutes later found the marimo on the training field lifting supposedly impossible weights; hey those muscles don't maintain themselves. A few strenuous hours later he was interrupted by a messenger with a message from his father, he was to report to the throne room immediately. Sighing the green haired man put down the weight he had in his hand and wiped his sweating face on the towel he had laying beside him, he then followed the messenger into the throne room.

"Good morning my son," the king said as Zoro stepped into the throne room, the attendants shutting the great doors behind him.

"Good morning father," he responded, bowing his head in respect. When he looked back up he saw a pleased expression on his father's face, the one that was always there when he did those little quirks his father wished for, the ones he would only tolerate in a good mood.

"I see your time with the manners instructor has been of some use to you," the ageing man said with a smile.

"What did you call me here for, father," the green haired prince asked, he may be in a good mood but he was hungry after all that training and wanted to get breakfast from Sanji as soon as possible.

"Yes, I wanted to say that is was unacceptable for you to wander off like that last night, I thought I made it completely clear that you were not to show any favoritism until the last night," with that the elder man's smile vanished and a stern look took its place, no nonsense mode initiated. Zoro's mind flashed back to why he had vanished from the ball and the feeling of warmth that had invaded his dream threatened to make him smile again but he quickly squashed it, reminding himself that he was not allowed to feel anything at all for the woman with the cat mask.

"I am sorry father, it will not happen again," with that Zoro bowed and left the room, not waiting for the approval from his father, he already knew what he would say anyway. His next destination was the kitchen where he was greeted by the sight of the manners master all ready to start the day's lessons.

"Ah, Prince Zoro," the man said trying to stand up and bow as fast as possible which caused him to get his legs tangled in the chair and face plant on the floor. He then stood up as dignifiedly as possible, brush himself off and bow to the prince with a mortified red face. "Are you ready for the day's lessons?" it was a rhetorical question and Zoro knew it but he nodded anyway and sat down at the counter waiting for the hours of torture to begin anew.

**Nami's pov**

She shuddered in the cold November wind, it was only the 8th and, in her opinion, it was far too early to be this cold, but the weather didn't ask her now did it. She pulled her thin cloak tighter around herself as she hurried to the dressmaker; she needed to check on the status of her dress for the last day. She felt the money she had stolen from her mother and sisters weigh heavy in her pocket, she needed a dress for the sixth day, and it wasn't really stealing if the money rightfully belonged to her. She shivered as a particularly strong gust blew right through her cloak and dress and walked even faster, longing for the warmth of a shop. Finally she reached her destination and dashed inside.

She relished the warmth as she found out that the dressmaker hadn't even begun to make her dress. She then braved the cold once more to find a dress for the sixth day. As she entered the readymade dress shop she noticed that almost every hanger was bare and there couldn't be more than 8 dresses left in the entire shop. She hadn't expected the ball to have this much of an impact but she had been underestimating the shopping force of women with a mission. She searched desperately to find a dress that fit to no avail, the shop was clean out and she was forced to leave.

Her next stop was the bakery, she had royally pissed off the dragon lady and the egoists and had to tide them over somehow, she really didn't want to have to avoid that club again. When she entered the bakery she was greeted with a great surprise, her one and only friend Habille was there as well.

"Nami," the younger girl exclaimed with delighted surprise and the two girls hugged. "I didn't think you would return to your house after yesterday."

"I had to, all my stuff is there and if I left there would be no one to take care of my parent's things, they have no respect for anything that belonged to my parents even though it's only because my parents died that they have any money in the first place!" With that she began to cry, there had just been too much tension in her life and she had to break down at some point. She buried her head in her hands and her friend enveloped her in a comforting hug. "I'm sorry Habille," she sniffed.

"Don't be, they're the ones that should be sorry, not you," she said quietly, "they're the ones that are in the wrong."

"Thanks," the ginger responded as she took a deep breath to calm herself down. "Okay, I feel better now, thank you Habille," she said with a weak smile, "It's just that everything has been piling up recently and it's getting hard to deal with."

"I know, and if you need to vent you know where to find me," the wild haired girl responded.

"Yes I do," the smile became more genuine, "and now I have to buy peace offerings." With that she bought a package of four muffins and hurried home to prepare breakfast for her 'jailers'. She quickly made a large pot of oatmeal then doled it out into four bowls and sprinkled some sugar on the top before adding a muffin and a glass of milk to each tray then hurrying up the stairs.

"Here is your breakfast oh lovely step-mother," she used her sickingly sweet voice and over the top compliments to tide over the dragons temper. When she didn't get any more response than a groan she quickly set the tray on the bedside table and scurried out of there, if she didn't have to deal with her step-mother she wasn't going to. She then knocked quietly on Porche's door and, when she solicited no response, repeated what she had done in her mother's room. She got lucky in the fact that Kalifa was also asleep and she didn't have to deal with the wrath of any of her step-family. All those late nights at the ball must have caught up with them, they weren't used to getting only 6 hours of sleep and it was likely that they wouldn't even wake until close to noon.

Smiling at her good luck Nami hummed as she returned to the kitchen to eat her own breakfast, it seemed to her that the oatmeal was richer and the muffin fluffier than normal and the sun seemed brighter to her. She carried on in this ridiculously happy mood as she worked on all the cleaning she had to do that day and was finished in record time. By the time the rest of the household awoke she was already done with the cleaning and moved on to doing the laundry and mending. The day continued on with minimal interaction between the two sides of the household, everyone basically minded their own business except for the few times that one of the jailers required the slave to do something for them, which rarely happened that day.

Finally the jailers prepared for the ball and left, a moment later Habille showed up to help Nami with her preparations. Thankful that she had a mask and therefore didn't have to worry about makeup the red-head put on the skin tight, short red dress then allowed her friend to style her hair. She then added a necklace made out of a black metal that had a large ruby in the center and a matching bracelet before putting on strappy, 4 inch, black heels and looking in the mirror, she then gasped. Habille had brushed her hair to give it the windblown look before darkening it until it looked pure black with ebony streaks running through it.

"Habille, you can work magic," she breathed as she stared at her reflection in the mirror.

"You look beautiful," Habille whispered as Nami added the finishing touch, the cat mask. Nami nodded her thanks then got in the waiting black carriage.

**Zoro's pov**

He was not keeping a look out for the woman with the cat mask no way, okay maybe he was, but only so he could keep as far away from her as possible, who knows she might rob him bare right there in the middle of the ball room, okay maybe not, but still. The women he had danced with that night were pissed at him, they kept stomping on his feet and leaving when they realized he wasn't paying attention to them, apparently in their minds the prince would be so enthralled with them that he wouldn't dare ignore them for one moment and since this guy was he obviously wasn't the prince. The woman he was currently dancing with seemed like she was close to her boiling point and he better clear out before she exploded and skewered his foot with those insanely high heels. Even though the song wasn't over he thanked her and retreated to the balcony, not because that's where he usually saw the cat woman, not at all, but because he could be alone there.

When he reached the open doors that lead out to the balcony he noticed that he would not be alone, a woman with black hair and a revealing red dress was already leaning on the rail looking out. He felt a stab of disappointment that he attributed to indigestion; there was no way that he was disappointed that it wasn't the cat woman, no way in the world. As he stepped out on the balcony the woman turned and he saw that she was wearing a cat mask, which was strange he hadn't noticed anyone else with a cat mask.

"Isn't it nice to cool down after dancing," he asked, if there was another woman who wasn't obsessed with marrying the prince he wanted to find her, it would help him get his mind off the cat woman…not that it was on her.

"Yeah, it gets really warm in there," he froze, there was no mistaking that voice, it was the same woman that he saw walking out of the treasury.

He turned to look at her, "what did you do to your hair?" he finally asked.

"Oh, this," she replied with a laugh that made his heart skip a beat and gave him a flash back to his dream, he immediately shot that train of thought down. "My friend did it for me; she said it went better with the dress this way."

"Is it permanent?" he asked, he knew he shouldn't continue talking to her but it was hard for him to pull himself away.

"No, at least I don't think so, Habille said it should wash out, and it better cause it would be really hard to explain this to the egoists," she said with a light quality to her voice. He had to think for a moment to remember who Habille was, she had been mentioned the night before as the cat woman's best and only friend that was the daughter of a bookseller and didn't want to come to the ball.

"Habille is that book girl, right?" he wanted to make sure that he had his facts straight, he was in no way trying to show that he had been listing to her or impress her with the fact that he knew her friend.

"Yeah," she responded in a soft voice filled with affection, he secretly hoped that it was for him…wait no he totally knew that it was for Habille and had nothing to do with him and he didn't care. If he could see her face he would see the faraway look in her eyes and wonder where her mind was, but he couldn't see her face. Suddenly a noise caused her to whip her head to face the ballroom.

"Found something to steal?" he said coldly causing her to freeze for a moment before slowly turning her body to face him.

"What do you mean?" she asked quietly, the shock evident in her voice.

"You know what I mean, thief," he shot back nonchalantly. He felt her glare upon him but brushed it off; if he could see her face it wouldn't be that easy to push aside that fiery glare. Suddenly she stalked over to him and grabber his ear he yelped in pain but was ultimately to surprised to resist as she dragged him through the ballroom and the corridor to the place that they had been talking the night before.

"First off, never call me that," she said as she let go of his ear and turned to face him with her hands on her hips. "Secondly, Never. Fricken. Call. Me. That." He once again felt her glare being set upon him and started to regret his actions, wait no it just reinforced his views, he totally meant to insult her and he didn't care at all about how she felt about him.

"Oh, I'm sorry, would you rather be called a cat burglar," he caught her raised wrist before she could slap him, "or maybe a pirate is more to your suiting."

**Nami's pov**

"What's wrong with you!" she exploded as she tore her hand out of his grasp and rubbed her wrist. She couldn't understand why he was being like this, just the night before she had thought they could be friends and now he was treating her like a Huguenot. (1)

"What's wrong with me?" she heard the anger growing in his voice, "why don't you ask yourself that! I'm not the one stealing from the royal treasury!"

"No you're not, you're just the guy that agreed that that king has far more money than he needs and that it should be given to the subjects that don't have much of their own!" she was seething with rage by this point.

"I didn't mean that they should steal it!" he shot back.

"So they should just starve to death waiting for the Scrooge that runs this kingdom to give them money for food!"

"You're obviously not starving?" he responded hotly as he gestured at her ample curves.

"But I still don't have enough to live without assistance?" she shot back instantly.

"And you're a liar too; just last night you said your parents were rich!"

"And that all their money was taken by the dragon woman and the egoists! I can't conjure a cent to my name!" He was just picking pieces of her story that suited his argument and ignoring the reality of her situation!

"And that it's rightfully yours! If you didn't lie about that then you could just take it!"

"Not without the will I can't! No judge in the land would give me everything over the dragon without a will!"

"So you are a liar, you don't even know that it even belongs to you!"

"It is mine," by now he had turned her wrath on high, "they told me that if anything happened then I would have everything," she wasn't yelling anymore, her voice was low but contained a dangerous quality. She took on the feeling of a cat about to pounce.

The man in the sword mask froze for a second, he must have sensed the change in atmosphere but he wasn't one for fear. "Then find the will," he said simply before turning away and leaving.

She stood there in a stunned silence for the next few moments, shocked that he had just walked away. She took a deep breath to calm herself down before she tried to think of a reason for why he suddenly hated her. Conveniently forgetting the last thing he had said to her she thought about how he had been so unreasonable today. If it hadn't been for him remembering their conversation from the night before she would have thought that it was a completely different person. Finally she shook herself off and stalked off to the carriage and her home.

**Zoro's pov**

He was starting to feel bad about how he had treated her…wait, he knew that she deserved it and his actions were totally justified…yeah. He growled as he struggled to fight off the sickening feeling that he had hurt this woman and tried his best to replace it with annoyance and hatred for this woman, it wasn't working very well. He was so immersed in his own thoughts that he didn't even notice how fast he was walking until moments later when he walked full speed into a wall and realized that he was lost, just the thing he needed to improve his mood. Growling again as he bent down to pick up his mask that had fallen off at the impact with the wall he looked around trying to discover where he was, he was in his own castle for god's sake, he should know his way around!

After replacing his mask he finally realized that he had no fricken idea where in the world he was and began to wander around, it was only a few more moments before he found himself in a hallway near the entrance but hidden from view to those at the doors, it was here that he paused hearing the unmistakable voice of the cat woman.

"That baka!" (2) He heard her say with a voice that sounded like it was holding back tears or crying. He felt a stab of pity overwhelm him and the strength of Chuck Norris combined with the Hulk wouldn't have been enough to push it down. The side that fought for a friendship and something more with this woman grew with every sniffle he heard until it was stronger than the side fighting it down. "He had no right to treat me that way, I get enough of that at home and I don't need it here as well…" her voice droned out as she exited the building and left the Prince deflated and dazed on the floor. He put his hand on his forehead and thought about what he had done.

**Nami's pov**

She had been able to sleep in that day for the first time since her father had died and oh how she had relished it. Sure she had cried herself to sleep but every girl was allowed to be weak every once in a while, and she had gained strength by finally resting enough to fulfill her needs. When she finally had awoken she had been allowed to lie in bed and enjoy the silence of the house while it still slumbered on, her step-family had still been asleep after the constant late nights, and for once she didn't have to jump out of bed to begin preparing for the day. Her happiness may have been dented by the memory of what the man with the sword mask had said the night before but she didn't let that get her down for long, she had obviously been wrong about him and she realized now that he wasn't worth another moment of her time, he was just an idiot.

The next few hours of her life had been spent doing the daily chores and making sure her step-family had nothing to complain about so she wouldn't have to be late for the ball. She had another dress and figured that she might as well not waste it, denying that she wanted to go to show the man with the sword mask that what he had said had not affected her in the slightest she convinced herself that she was going so she wouldn't deny Habille the pleasure of helping her get ready. The day passed without much incident and soon enough her step-family had left and Habille had shown up to help her prepare. She lifted her last dress up and put it on enjoying her appearance in the mirror. She loved the feeling of twirling on the dance floor with the full skirt and her curves were still shown off with the top that left her shoulders bare, think Bell's yellow gown in Beauty and the Beast.

"Gorgeous as always," Habille said as she entered Nami's attic room.

"Thank you Habille," the red haired 18 year old responded as she added her mother's necklace that contained a single sapphire that was the same dark blue of the dress and had a teardrop shape and was hung on a black cord. Her hair was left down and she wore gold heels that would likely never be seen, she had stolen them from Kalifa's closet.

"Now go break some hearts," the dishwater blonde said as her friend entered the carriage and was off to the ball.

After hours of dancing for hours the ginger made her way to the balcony to cool off, it was the only time that she appreciated the cold November wind. As she was at the door to the balcony she heard voices and paused, she wanted to make sure that she wouldn't run into her step-family.

"We have this maid at our house and she thought that she could come to the ball too," Nami started to turn away as she recognized the voice of her youngest sister Porche, it was hard to mistake it after hearing that laugh. She took a step away, fully intending to find another place to cool down when she heard the voice of who she was with and froze.

"And why would she think that?" the voice of the man that had dominated her thoughts since the first night and felt a stab of anger and jealousy that took over her motor control and forced her to return to the optimal listening position.

"She claimed that all women would be welcome," Porche chuckled at this, "like they would want someone without the proper education," that was accompanied by another laugh that caused Nami's blood to boil.

"And why would she think that?" His response created even more anger in her, he must have been just been lying to her and was now showing his true self.

"She thinks just because her parents were a duke and duchess that she…" Nami couldn't listen to anymore and rushed away from the balcony, not caring where she was heading.

**Zoro's pov**

He turned as he saw a flicker of movement in the corner of his eye; he turned and saw a flash of red hair vanish into the crowd. He felt a sense of dread solidify in his gut as he realized that she must have heard what he said.

"Are you even listening?" the annoying long nosed girl he was talking to said, obviously irritated.

"You were just bragging about how your mother cheated an innocent girl out of her money," he saw her gape and grinned slightly under his mask before he turned to follow the cat masked woman, he had to explain to her what he had been doing.

"How dare you…" her voice was drowned out by the crowd in the ballroom, not that he really cared what she said at that point, he had gotten what he had wanted out of her already. He pushed through the throngs of people, not really caring if he pushed them over or not, he was too busy trying to keep sight of the red haired woman he wanted to follow.

"Wait," he called out and saw her freeze for a moment before moving forward with more urgency than before. He shook his head knowing that it was his own fault that she was running away. He had only been trying to find out if she had been telling the truth, he was pretty sure she had been but he needed to know just how bad it had been for her. He had spent the entire ball up to that point finding out what he could about her family and her life and it wasn't good. He had just been questioning the last one to see if she had any allies when she had appeared. He couldn't believe that just when he had been trying to help he had hurt her even more.

Finally he emerged out into the hallway and looked around just in time to see the corner of a blue gown disappear around a corner. He rushed after her but when he turned the corner he was greeted with an empty hallway.

"Dammit!" he half growled and half yelled as he punched the wall in frustration. He sunk to his knees and threw his mask across the hall, he was tired of this ball, nothing good had come out of it, in fact it seemed to be making his life worse. Suddenly he heard a noise and shot his head up to see someone in a deep blue dress hurrying around the corner, she must have looked back to see him. He stood up quickly to follow her forgetting that he had left his mask on the floor. "Wait!" he cried again as he rushed after her.

He ran after her but ultimately got lost in the twists of the oversized castle and had to realize that he would not be able to find her. Disappointed and maskless he wandered around the castle until he found his way to his bedroom where he collapsed on his bed, he would deal with the consequences in the morning but for now he was just as able to go back to the ball as Luffy was to swim.

**Nami's pov**

She had cried herself to sleep again but hadn't had the luxury of a good night sleep as she had the night before; instead she had tossed and turned all night in nightmare after nightmare. She had to witness her step-family killing her parents time and time again and she also had to sit through people she loved turning into monsters. Eventually she woke up in a cold sweat and just got up; she was tired of those nightmares. Feeling lonely she had a sudden urge to be closer to her parents, doing the only thing she could do she went down to the basement and into a backroom where she had moved all of their things that she could. Sitting on the floor surrounded by her parent's old things calmed her down and she started to dig through some of the chests.

Suddenly she gasped as she lifted a beautiful dress out of a chest; she must have looked over it when she had been going through their things before. She stood up and held the dress against her; it would be perfect for the ball! She then remembered what had happened the night before and how she had no reason to go to the ball. She almost convinced herself not to go when she thought of how disappointed Habille would be if she didn't go, it had nothing to do with how much she wanted to wear that dress, she was completely doing it for Habille. Realizing that if she wanted to bring the dress up to her room she better do it soon she left the basement, sure there wasn't much chance of anyone else waking up but if they did she would get in some serious trouble.

Hours late Habille showed up and gasped at the beautiful dress that she saw her friend wearing. It was a pale bluish grey dress with a grey silk underskirt that showed in the front. It was a sleeveless top that was attached to a sheer skin colored fabric that was dotted with tiny diamonds. The waist of the dress had an array of different gems and they trailed down the edge of the overdress and up on the bodice.

"Oh Nami, it's beautiful, where did you get it?" Habille breathed as she stared as enthralled as Golem with the dress.

"It was my mothers," Nami responded quietly, "and I found these bracelets and chocker with it." She held up three pieces of jewelry that matched the waist of her dress.

"I know nobody will see it but I can't resist, can I please do your makeup for this dress?" it seemed as if it was causing Habille physical pain to resist grabbing the makeup kit after she had added all the jewelry to her friend.

"Alright," Nami responded, she wasn't one to tell her hyperactive friend no. She closed her eyes and Habille applied a sparkly light greenish-blue eye shadow and lengthen and darken her eyelashes. She then applied a clear glass to her beautiful friend's lips and added a light red blush before stepping back with a smile.

"You look beautiful," Habille said, "and now for your hair." She added hair extensions that made her friend's hair cascade to her waist and gave it a wave. She smiled then turned the ginger towards the mirror.

"Oh Habille, you can do magic," she breathed.

"Thank you," the blonde responded giving her a hug, "now let's get your shoes and, it's a pity, but your mask. I really wish you didn't have to wear that; your beauty shouldn't be covered up." Nami gave her a smile at that before grabbing the silver heels that she had found also in the chest, they had some gems on them as well, this outfit must have cost her mother a fortune. She gave her appearance one last look before putting on her mask, hugging her friend one last time, and leaving the house.

She felt all eyes on her when she entered and absolutely glowed in all the positive attention. Well that was until she saw the man with the sword mask being one of her observers, he was the person she wanted to see even less than her step-family, at least they were straight forward with her. She looked around for a way out of the limelight and the sword mans direct line of sight and found it in the perverted man with the swirl mask.

It had been over 2 hours since she had arrived and she felt beautiful, everyone she had danced with had complimented her. She thanked her latest partner and made her way to the balcony to cool down, she didn't understand why the other people there didn't like to cool off, they probably thought that if they took one moment off that they would miss their chance to meet the prince. Smiling as she felt the cold air meet her overheated flesh she made her way to the railing and leaned on it and removed her mask, no one went out there anyway. She ran her fingers through her bangs to detach them from her sweat soaked forehead and smiled as a cold blast hit her forehead. She stayed like that for a few minutes, just enjoying the view and the cold air before she heard a sound behind her and turned, it was the man with the sword mask.

"What do you want?" she growled.

**Zoro's pov**

When he had seen her enter he knew that all the trouble he had gone through that morning with his father had been worth it. He tried to talk to her but she had obviously not felt the same, and she had been as subtle as a charging rhino about it. He had spent the last few hours watching her to see when he could get her alone to apologize and she couldn't run away. Finally he had seen her go out on the balcony and he got over there as fast as he could, which wasn't that fast, he kept getting stopped by random people. Finally he had exited to the balcony and seen her standing there with her mask in her hand. She must have heard him coming because she turned around and it was all he could do not to gasp as he saw just how beautiful she really was.

"What do you want?" she growled at him and he remembered how mad she was at him, not that he didn't deserve at least some of it.

"I wanted to explain but first you might want to put your mask back on," he saw her register that she wasn't wearing a mask, realize how dangerous that was and then quickly shove it back on her face. "Now I wanted to explain what you heard last night," he saw her get ready to dash around him, it seems like he had hit a sore spot. "Wait, just let me explain," he spoke desperately, he really had to set this straight, "I just wanted to see just how bad your family was," he saw her freeze and knew that he had caught her attention.

"What business was it of yours?" she had a dangerous quality to her voice and it triggered his fighter instinct that he pushed down, hey he couldn't help it.

"I was a jerk to you and I wanted to make it right," he would never admit it but it was harder for him to apologize than it was for Luke to accept his father. (3)

"Well thank you for your apology," her voice had warmed up slightly but was still as cold as the ice age.

"I just wanted to be able to help you," he probably sounded desperate; he really wanted to make everything right with her.

"Who asked for your help?" he couldn't help but hear the irritation in her voice, "I'm not a damsel in distress that needs saving."

"I'm not saying that you are," great he was trying to make things right and all he was doing was making them worse, "I just wanted to… arrg never mind, if you don't want my help then I'll butt out!" he was too frustrated with himself to even try right now, he really didn't want to make things worse. He started to turn around when he felt a hand on his arm.

"Thank you," the cat woman said softly before running away into the crowd leaving him frozen in place blushing and questioning her motives.

**Nami's pov**

She didn't know why she had thanked the swords man, she had been pissed that he had been acting like she couldn't take care of herself and suddenly her body had moved on its own and thanked him. She ran her hand through her hair and sighed, she gave up on trying to figure out what she had meant as she made her way to the front door, she might as well go home, she didn't want to run into the swords man again. She was to engrossed in her thoughts to pay attention to where she was going so it was about as surprising as Lindsey Lohan ending up in rehab that she ran into someone. She oomphed as she fell to the floor before looking up at the long nosed man in the colorful mask (4) that she had run into.

"Oh," he exclaimed as he looked down at her, "sorry."

"It's not a problem," she responded before standing up and brushing herself off, she then headed to the door. It wasn't until she was in her carriage that she realized that she wasn't wearing her mask.

**(1) No I am not biased against Huguenots, it's just that in world history we learned about how the Huguenots were being prosecuted so I figured that it fit**

**(2) Idiot in Japanese**

**(3) Star Wars, Luke can't accept who his father is**

**(4) The Sogeking mask :D**

**Thank you for reading :) now please review**


	4. To the seventh and beyond

**Sorry it took so long to update, I've had this mostly done for a while but I just couldn't write the last few pages. I mean yeah I had finals and stuff but it's been summer for a while and I just couldn't write but now I finally have it finished. Well anyway I'm going to do a story called five real truths and it's going to be five stories branching off from this that you guys want to hear more about. The first chapter is going to be the story of her mother but you guys get to send in ideas for the other four stories. Jesushomie: any preference about what you want your story to be about other than it should be ZoNa?**

The door slammed shut with a sense of finality and the fought down her despair as she heard the click of the lock. She supposed that it had been her fault, she had dropped her mask and allowed her face to be seen by her step-family but she hadn't known that her mask had fallen off until she was on her way home, and she didn't think that many people had saw her. Too bad for her that her family had noticed and they had gotten very suspicious causing them to leave the ball early and arrive home just scarce minutes after she did, not nearly enough time for her to remove all traces of the ball. They had locked her in her room that night least she run away, they had only allowed her out that day to make their meals and do chores, all of which under the watchful eye of one of them at least. They had taken the opportunity to push her down even more than usual; they insulted her, tripped her, laughed at her, and yelled at her whenever she so much as lifted a finger.

It wasn't like she was surprised by their treatment, she had grown used to it over the years, but she couldn't help feeling worse than usually for the simple reason that she wouldn't be able to attend the ball for the one last night. She hadn't been able to sneak away to the dressmaker that day and now her step-family had left for the ball leaving her locked in her room, and even if she did get out she wouldn't have a dress, even the dressmaker went to the ball. She put her head in her hands and allowed herself a moment of weakness. After a minute or two she lifted her head and wiped away the tears, she wasn't going to cry over missing the last night with the swords man, at least she didn't have to be there for the prince to choose his vapid, egocentric bride. She shook her head to try and clear away the storm cloud of her thoughts before they brought about another bout of rain.

She stood up from her bed, she wasn't one to wallow in self-pity after all, and tried to think of a way out of her room. So what if she couldn't attend the ball, she at least didn't want to be trapped in her room for Zeus knows how long. She tried the door handle, no luck, her family may be stupid but they did know how to lock a door. She sighed, she wasn't really surprised but she at least had hoped that they would have forgotten just this once. She then turned around to survey her room like an architect surveying a build sight. She tried to look for every possible escape route but there weren't many save the door and breaking a hole in the floor. Growling in frustration she turned towards her window, it was her last bet before trying to learn how to pick a lock. She made her way to the window and peered out, it was a **long** way down. She shuddered at trying to make that drop, let's just say that if she jumped Darth Vader would look beautiful compared to her.

Not wanting to die but still wanting to get out of her room she searched for fabric that she could use to make the decline easier, like a rope to climb down. All she ended up with was the two sheets that she had on her bed and the nightgown in her closet; her step-family had taken most of the dresses that she had worn to the ball, they had only been in her closet, and the only one she had left was the one that had been her mothers, there was no way that she was going to risk breaking that. She stared down at the fabric in her hands, willing it to grow longer, but to no avail; this wasn't back to the future after all. **(1) ** Just when she had given up the last of her hope she heard noise on the stairs and froze.

"Who's there?"

**Zoro's pov**

He felt the stiff material of the cat mask under his suit coat and it reminded him of the woman that he was looking for. He swept his eyes over the room of shallow women in to tight dresses just trying to catch a glimpse of the woman who had been dominating his thoughts and he didn't even know her name! He felt a sharp pain in his foot and knew that he had just lost another dance partner, not that he cared, he was too busy trying to find the cat woman. He made his way to the balcony; it was basically the last place he could think to look and now that he had just lost his dance partner her didn't have any reason not to go there. Stepping out into the cold he felt a stab of great disappointment to find the balcony as empty as Blackbeard's heart.

"Where is she?" he mumbled to himself, the sadness and longing evident in his voice as he gazed out at the kingdom that stretched before him. He knew that his father would berate him for not paying attention to any of the woman, especially on a night as significant as this, but at this point he couldn't muster any care for his father's thoughts. He leaned over the balcony as he thought about the woman that had made such an impact on his life in such a short period of time. He put his hand inside his coat and let it rest on the cat mask while he thought about that beautiful red-head.

**Nami's pov**

"Who's there?" Nami called through the door, she tried not to let her fear show in her voice.

"Jack and Gus," responded the unmistakable voices of her friend Habille's twin little cousins and Nami breathed a sigh of relief coupled with a jolt of hope.

"Sorry I was late, the twins took forever to get here and since I kept taking the carriage dad said that I had to babysit them while they visit," Habille called out, her voice growing closer as she climbed the stairs.

"Habille," Nami's voice was pure delight, if anything could get her out of there it would be Habille's intelligence and the twins' talent at getting where they weren't wanted. "My step-mother found out that I was going to the ball and she locked me in here."

"Oh Nami," Habille cried, "don't worry, we will get you out of there right away, if we work fast you can still make it to the ball."

"I'm not going to the ball Habille," her excitement was dampened by that fact, "I don't have a dress and even if I did I lost my mask last night and my family would defiantly find out."

"Don't be silly, of course you're going to the ball."

"Habille, I can't."

"Look we don't have time to argue right now, we can have this conversation after we get you out of there," Nami didn't respond, she knew her friend meant business and was content to just bide her time and make her arguments so she could convince her friend when she did get out.

"Okay Nami," Habille called through the door, "we are going to go search your step-families rooms to see if we can find anything to get you out." Nami just nodded against the door as she heard the footsteps of her last hope grow dimmer as they descended the stairs. Leaning against the door she thought about the green haired man with the sword mask. After a while she got torn out of her thoughts by the hurried footsteps on the stairs.

"Nami!" it was Habille and it sounded like something had happened.

"Habille, what's wrong?" what could have happened to her friend?

"Nothing's wrong but I found something in your step-mother's room that I have to show you!"

"What is it?" she had no idea what Habille could have possibly found in the dragon's lair.

"Oh Nami, I found your parents will." All the air seemed to leave the room as what she comprehended what her friend was saying.

"What does it say?" she barely could force the words out and the moment that it took for Habille felt like years.

"They left everything to you once you turn 16." Nami felt the rage overcome her; she had been suffering under her step-family for two years when they should have been in the poor house! If she had had access to the will she would have had power over them as well!

"Habille we couldn't find anything," the voices of Jack and Gus called up the stairs.

"Neither did I," she called back to them, "sorry Nami they must have taken the key with them."

"I thought they would," Nami responded with a growl that was more attributed to what she had discovered about the will then about the key.

"Do you have any pins in there?" the high pitched, somewhat mouse like, voice of Jack asked.

"Yes," Nami responded after looking around for a moment.

"Okay, do you know how to pick a lock?"

"No."

"Okay, then do what I say," **(2)** Jack then proceeded to explain exactly how she should go about breaking herself out of her attic prison. For some reason it didn't surprise her that Jack knew how to pick a lock. Finally she heard the satisfying click of the lock being opened and she pushed the door to reveal Habille holding a piece of paper and Jack with a giant grin on his face.

"And that is how you pick a lock," Jack said, his grin widening.

"Where's Gus?" Nami asked looking around.

"Here I am." The chubbier of the twins said as he ran up the stairs, his arms filled with food.

"Did you just raid my kitchen?" Nami asked raising her eyebrows while Jack helped himself to a roll from Gus's pile.

"Yeph?" he answered causing Nami to shake her head.

"Habille," she said turning toward her friend, "can I see that?"

"Of course," Habille handed over the wrinkled piece of paper, "but hurry up so we can get you to the ball. Nami gave her friend a pointed look before looking down at the paper of her inheritance.

"_To our daughter Nami we leave our entire estate and fortune to be given to her on her 16__th__ birthday."_

She wiped away the tears that threatened to fall as she looked down at the proof out her parents love for her.

"The moment that I can I am going to get what is rightfully mine." Her hands were gripping the paper hard and her eyes were steely as she brought her gaze up to her one and only friend's face.

**Zoro's pov**

He knew that his father wasn't going to be happy about this but there was no way that he was going to marry any of those marriage grubbing, vapid, egoists that were dominating the ballroom; the only woman that he would even think about marrying was the beautiful woman with the red hair, the one that hadn't even shown up that night. He growled as he made his way to his father's balcony that overlooked the ballroom, he was pissed as Hades that she hadn't shown up, even if she had rejected him it would have been better if she had been there so he could prove to his father that he had at least tried. He finally reached the top of the stairs and he immediately threw open the door, he wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.

"I'm not marrying a single woman in that ballroom," he growled angrily the moment that his father came into view.

"Yes, you are," his father didn't even turn as he responded to his willful son.

"No, I'm not, there is only one woman in this entire kingdom that I would even think about marrying and she's not down there, therefore I am not marrying a single woman in that ballroom."

"And what is the name of this maiden that has finally captured your elusive heart?" his father finally turned to face him and the curiosity was evident in his eyes as was the disbelief that was mixed in with it.

"I'm not sure," he admitted grudgingly, "but she is still the only woman that I will even think about marrying."

"And how do you plan on finding this fair maiden if you do not even know her given name?"

"I would know her if I saw her."

"And you plan on looking at every maiden in all the lands to find her, which hardly seems practical, it would be much easier on everyone if you just gave up on this maiden and chose one out of the abundance of suitable young woman who have gathered here. Anyway if this maiden did not feel it necessary to attend tonight's ball than it is highly likely that she would not make a suitable queen."

"She didn't come because her step-family must have discovered that she had been sneaking out to attend this ball and kept her from coming somehow!" he hated his father badmouthing this girl when he had never even met her! So enraged was he that he missed the unidentifiable flicker that passed through his father's eyes.

"And how do you know this? Isn't it possible that she just didn't want to come?"

"YOU DON'T KNOW HER!" Zoro roared causing the guards to flinch.

"No I don't, I'm just saying that can't know her either. Now be a good boy and go back down there and pick a wife."

"I refuse," his voice was quiet and dangerous, "I will find her; just you watch."

"Fine, if you insist on being this difficult I will give you a month's time to find this woman and convince her to marry you, if you cannot do this than you must choose a bride from among the eligible ladies that I select. Is that more to your liking?"

"I will find her, you'll see." With that he stormed to his room, he couldn't go back to the ball in the mood he was in.

**Nami's pov**

It had taken a lot of convincing but she had finally convinced Habille that she would not be attending the final night of the ball, what did she care for who the prince married. She shoved down the regret of not being able to see the swords man one last time as she sat on her bed waiting for her family to return. She had convinced Jack to re-lock her in so her family wouldn't suspect anything; she was waiting to drop the bomb of surprise in the morning with a lawyer on her side. There she sat with a silly smile on her face as she thought about the outrage that her step-family would feel and the hopelessness that would go along with it when she finally heard the click of a key in the lock and began the last night of her maid duties. She probably caused her family some suspicions when she seemed not at all mad that she had been locked up and downright giddy to complete the tasks they gave her. If she had been thinking straight she may have realized that giving her family suspicions wasn't a good idea.

She awoke the next morning with an excitement burning under her skin, today would be the day that she finally freed herself from the overbearing grasp of her step-family and gave them what they deserved. She sat up and stretched with a smile, for once she was happy that morning had come. After getting dressed she excused herself from her room, they hadn't felt the need to keep her locked up any longer, and if they did they would have to let her out before they could get their breakfast. Smiling she made her way down the stairs and out the door, she was on her way to the only lawyer she knew of and he better be up. It wasn't until she reached the bottom of the stairs that she realized that in her life nothing could ever go as planned.

"Going somewhere?" Nami froze as the voice that she had come to hate rang out in the supposedly empty entry hall. She raised her head slowly wishing the voice to only be in her imagination and was met with the sickening feeling that she wasn't going to get her way as she met the cold eyes of Kalifa.

"And what's that in your hand? Did you happen to steal that from my room?" the dragon woman's voice called.

"Oh so our little servant decides to repay our kindness with this?" this time it was the shrill voice of Porche.

"Well you won't be needing this," she felt her last hope of freedom being pulled from her hand and she was helpless to stop it as the hopelessness closed in around her. She heard the sounds of ripping paper **(3)** and laughter and felt tears start to fall down her face **(4)**.

It didn't take long for Nami to realize that she had no chance of escaping the house will or not. Whenever she went to town Porche wanted to go shopping, whenever she was cooking Kalifa wanted to read in the kitchen, and so on. It seemed as if the only places she could be alone were her room in the attic and the basement, there was no way to escape down there so her family didn't care. During the next three weeks that followed she got used to the routine that her step-family had established and learned when she could slip away to the basement without them noticing, they weren't really that admit about watching those stairs after a while. It was soon after she figured out that schedule that she grabbed her mother's dress and made her way down the basement to return it to its chest before her step-family could get a hold of it. She didn't meet any of them on her way down, after three weeks with no escape attempts they had relaxed and since the doors were still locked and they didn't know about Nami's new lock picking ability they thought that she had no way out.

Once in the basement she hurried to the chest that had contained the dress and when she opened it she noticed a journal both sitting at the bottom of the chest. She picked up the journal curiously wondering why she hadn't noticed that it was there before. She took the journal out of the chest and put the dress back in. She then stood up and made her way back to her room holding the journal close. When she closed the door to her room she breathed a sigh of relief, she hadn't been caught and gotten the journal confiscated by the dragon woman. Sitting on her bed she opened the journal to the first page and began to read.

Her eyes widened as she realized it was her mother's journal, though it really shouldn't have surprised her, who else would have put a journal there? She smiled as she read through her mother's thoughts and looked at the sketches. The journal began before she was born but she learned that her family had been close to the royals, so much so that her father was the prince's godfather. She smiled as she read about her parent's excitement over her birth but looked on in shock when she read that the king was her godfather. For a moment a new bubble of hope formed in her chest, she could just ask the king to right this wrong, but it quickly disappeared when she realized that she couldn't even go to the bakery much less the palace.

**Zoro's pov**

He couldn't find her. He had been searching for weeks, calling on house after house but he hadn't found the woman that he was looking for and his month was nearly up. He growled as he stalked down the hall on his way to the throne room to report his progress to his father. He hated that look his father got every evening when he reported that he once again had found neither hide nor hair of the woman he had been so desperately searching for. He frowned as he thought of all the measures he had already undertook to try and track her down, she hadn't turned up after he sent a messenger to each house, nor after he had gone on house calls to every house in the town **(5)**. He had even gone so far as to give her description to servants in the palace for hope that they would spot her whilst they were out in the town, no one saw her. He growled again as he entered his father's throne room and saw a woman with long blue hair standing beside his father's throne **(6)**. He knew then that his father was up to something and he didn't like where it was going.

"Good evening father," the prince spoke as he bowed before the throne, he figured he had better get as far on his father's good side as he could before the inevitable argument came.

"Good evening my son, how did the search fare today?"

"We have still not located her, father."

"Ah I feared as much, and your time is waning. I do believe that I only allotted you another two days for your search."

"That is something that I wanted to talk to you about father."

"What is it?" Zoro saw his father's eyes flash and knew that it was going to be a hard sell.

"I was hoping that you could extend my time by another month," he saw disbelief appear in his father's eyes only to be replaced by annoyance with a tinge of anger.

"I graciously give you a month more than I originally promised and you beg for more?" the anger was evident in his voice.

"I need to find her father!"

"Enough you promised that you would find her in within the month or marry another and a Prince needs to keep his word!"

"Please father, I would do anything **(7).**"

"Anything you say, well than I will grant your wish, but for a price."

"What is it father?" Zoro felt the sickening feeling of dread settle in the bottom of his stomach as he thought about what he had just gotten himself into.

"I will give you one more week to find this woman but in exchange if you don't find her I will be picking your bride."

"But father…" he didn't get to finish his statement.

"No buts, a prince has to learn to make good on his promises. You have my permission to leave."

"But…" his sentence was cut short by his father's glare. Annoyed that he wouldn't get his way but afraid to anger his father more he left the room with a scowl appearing the moment he turned out of his father's view. His scowl didn't vanish as he stalked to his bedroom and was still present as he thought about how he possibly could find that beautiful red-headed woman.

**Nami's pov**

It had been a month since she had attended the ball and seen the man with the sword mask and she was starting to miss him, okay scratch that she really missed him. She didn't know why she kept thinking about that mad, it wasn't as if she was in love with him or anything…right? She just missed the playful banters that they had participated in. She really didn't like him or anything, she just, oh screw it yes she did, not that admitting it would help her since she couldn't go anywhere or see anyone. She didn't know why the fates were so determined to mess with her, when she finally fell in love of course it had to be with someone that she couldn't be with, she didn't even know his name.

She sighed as she picked up her mother's journal again; she had to get her mind off of him. She flipped it open to the page that she had ended at. She thought back upon the story of her life that she had learned. Since she was a baby she had been playmates with the young prince, they often did spat but overall they were as thick as thieves. She read about how happy her family had been and how close they were to the royals, to the point that her parents and the king (the queen had died giving birth) had often joked about a marriage between her and the prince. She really enjoyed seeing the sketches that her mother drew, a majority of them were of her and the young prince and the adventures that they had.

She was at the part of the journal where she was five years old; it was near the end since her mother died the next year. She was reading through when suddenly her eyes widened, her parents had met Alvida and her two daughters. Sure she knew that her parents, or at least, her father must have known them but it still was strange to read about it, especially when her mother was the one who had met them first. She read about how her mother had an uneasy feeling around Alvida, like she was around a thief, but she hadn't wanted to say anything. Nami's eyes rushed over the words as she read her mother's suspicions about Nami's step-mother that were becoming increasingly common until they outnumbered the entries about everything except Nami herself. She read faster and faster the closer to the end she got and finally she was at the entry of the day her mother died.

When she was almost at the end a piece of paper fluttered to the floor. Curiously Nami picked it up and began to read and the moment she did her eyes widened. On the paper was a note addressed to her.

_Dear Nami,_

_If you are reading this then I must be dead already and for that I apologize. I wanted to watch you grow up and help you through all the struggles that you would face but I had no choice in the matter of my death. I want you to be wary of a woman named Alvida, if my suspicions are right than she was the one who killed me. I have watched her eyes fill with malicious intent when she sets them upon me and I can see the plotting expression plain on her face. I promise you that I didn't go down without a fight but in some matters I must have lost. _

_I knew that the possibility of my death was high so I am preparing for your future. I did also give in to a bit of vanity with the dress that I bought you for your 16__th__ birthday but a girl needs at least one beautiful dress, does she not? Well I suppose it wasn't the most helpful thing in the world but I couldn't resist. Now I want you to stay strong through all of this because I will secure your future. Your father and I wrote it in our will that you will receive everything that we own when you turn 18 and I am going to talk to the king tomorrow about something even more important, since I don't know if I can make that happen I won't worry you with it. _

_Nami, I love you and I always will._

_Love,_

_Your mother_

Wiping away tears Nami flipped to the last page of the journal. That entry had no trace of joy in it, her mother talked about how she didn't think that much more time would go by without Alvida doing something to her. She talked about how she wanted to protect her daughter, that brought tears to Nami's eyes, and she talked about how she needed to warn her husband that something evil was brewing. Nami read as her perfectly healthy mother described her observations about the fat woman that was after her and her fear for her own life. Nami could barely hold back the tears for she knew that her mother would not survive that day, and she could barely contain the rage that she felt against her step-mother for taking her mother away from her. About to be overcome with emotion Nami could barely continue reading until the last line of the entry froze her in shock, causing her to drop the journal on the floor of her bedroom.

After a moment she shook herself off and decided that the matter which had caused her to freeze could wait, for now she had to get revenge on the dragon woman for what she had done. Trembling with rage she made her way to the front door with the journal in a pocket sown on the inside of her dress, in her mind that journal was more than enough to get Alvida beheaded. She was too absorbed in her own bubble of anger to notice the metal club that knocked her out.

**Zoro's pov**

It was the last day of the week his father had given him and he still had found no sign of the woman with the cat mask. He felt himself close to tears with frustration and exhaustion as he stormed down a back hallway in the palace. He was only one day away from being forced to forever give up on the woman he had fallen for and when you were as loyal as Zoro that was not okay. He growled as he thought about that desert princess with the blue hair that his father had brought to marry him off too, he knew that he could never love her and she would just be a barrier between him and the woman he wanted. He felt a wave of despair roll over him as he thought about the dwindling time he had left to find the one that held his happiness, and it caused him to punch a wall before collapsing on his knees; not that that helped since it just caused him to remember when he had done the same thing after chasing her at the ball.

Suddenly he heard a clatter sounding from the storage room behind the wall he had just abused and his sorrow was momentarily pushed aside by curiosity. Making his way into the storage room he saw a picture frame leaning against the wall. Curiously Zoro picked it up and brought it into the light of the hallway for inspection. A moment after looking at the picture his eyes widened and he grabbed the picture and made off for the throne room at full speed.

"It's her!" Zoro yelled the moment he entered the large, overly decorated room.

"What?" his father turned away from the advisor he had been speaking with to face him.

"It's her!" Zoro repeated as enthusiastic as if he had just beat Mihawk as he held up the painting he had found.

"What do you mean it's her?"

"The girl in the picture, she's the one I have been looking for!" Zoro's smile was about to break his face in two but it faltered when he saw the look on his father's face.

"That's impossible," the man said and Zoro saw genuine sorrow in his eyes.

"What do you mean?" he felt a sense of dread growing in the bottom of his stomach.

"That can't be the girl you're looking for."

"Why?"

"She's dead." Zoro saw tears appear in his father's eyes before he looked away.

"But I just saw her…"

"You must have mistaken her for someone else."

"I couldn't have, they look…"

"My son, that girl that you see died ten years ago."

"I don't believe you, I saw her with my own eyes!"

"Would I lie? I loved that girl like my own daughter and it near broke my heart when she died along with her parents."

"I know that it's the same girl and that she is alive!"

"I wish it were true, if she hadn't died than I wouldn't have had to worry about who you would marry at all."

"I know that… wait, what do you mean you wouldn't have had to worry?"

"She's dead so it doesn't matter; now please leave before you open up the wounds in my heart more." Too confused to argue further Zoro picked up the portrait he had found and made his way to his bedroom. Once there he sat on the bed and inspected the portrait more closely. He took in the two children, they seemed to be about five years old and the boy was definitely him. He then looked at the small girl and inspected her features closely. He took in the short red hair and the large brown eyes and compared the adorable girl with the beautiful woman that he had seen at the ball. He thought on this problem for a good half hour before finally determining that it was the same woman, but why on earth did his father believe that she was dead and why couldn't he remember ever seeing this girl before. It was while he was pondering this that he fell asleep.

_He was running down a sparsely lit hallway after a little red haired girl who was laughing joyously as she evaded him. With a small frown he willed his short legs to move faster while he cursed his seven year old body. He watched as she looked back at him with a smile on her small face then turned a corner. Rushing to the corner he turned it quickly but the girl was nowhere to be seen. Looking around he saw the corner of a black gown turning down a hall behind him. As he ran his legs grew and as he turned the corner and saw the woman standing there he was in the body of a man. The woman turned towards him and he watched as she reached a hand up and removed the cat mask from her face revealing her beautiful smile._

"_Found you."_

Zoro awoke with a start as his dream came back to him, but his mind didn't stop there, his mind was flooded with memories of his childhood friend, Nami.

**Nami's pov**

"You have no right to keep me in here!" Nami yelled as she banged on her door, not that it did any good. She had been locked in her room for a week and there was no sign that they were going to let her out soon. She growled as she remembered her stupidity on the stairs, she should have noticed her step-mother behind her; she had years of practice avoiding her after all. She didn't even know how her step-family had known that she was planning on doing anything, it's not like she had given them any clues and since they hadn't searched her room or her person it seemed like they had no suspicions at all. Sure she was glad that she still had her mother's journal but she almost would have given it up to know what her step-family had locked her up for.

"Step away from the door." It was the no nonsense voice of Kalifa.

"I'm not by it sister dearest," the last part came out as a sneer; she felt no reason to even feign civility to her jailers. Kalifa didn't bother responding as she opened the door and deposited Nami's daily meal on the floor.

"Just so you know, there was an accident in a certain bookstore yesterday and a girl died," with that Kalifa shut the door leaving Nami to look at it with an expression of shock and horror.

"No," she whispered softly, "it can't be."

Suddenly she felt a fit of rage overcome her, she knew that her step-family had played a role in this and she would get her revenge. Growling she listened at her door and upon hearing nothing picked the lock, creped down the stairs and snuck out into the December day. She rushed to the bookstore to hear for herself just what had happened to her friend, she would plan her revenge accordingly. Upon arriving she immediately stormed in and was greeted by the sight of Habille humming to herself while shelving books.

"Habille," she almost screamed with joy as she threw herself into her friend's arms.

"Nami?" Habille sounded surprised.

"I thought you were dead," she could feel the tears of relief spilling down her face as she hugged her friend closer.

"Why would you…" Habille was cut off by Nami's sobs.

"They said you were."

"Who did, and where were you?"

"My step-family, they said that someone died here and they had me locked in my room."

"For an entire week?"

"Then they told me you were dead and I broke out."

"Oh Nami," Habille hugged her sobbing friend closer, "now you have to get out of that house, who knows what they will do next."

"I know; I'm going to leave now and get them thrown out of that house." With that Nami gave her friend a final squeeze before leaving the shop with hardly a backward glance. She walked down the street with a sense of purpose as she made her way to the village lawyer.

**Zoro's pov**

"But you promised me…" the prince was cut off by his father raising his hand for silence.

"No buts, I was generous with the time that you were allowed and now that the week I granted you has run out I expect you to hold up your end of the deal and marry Princess Vivi. Now I don't want to hear another word out of you until you are saying I do. Off with you, the wedding will commence in an hour."

Incredulously Zoro left the room in a state of shock. He knew that he would have to marry the blue haired princess in theory but now? And to top it off it was only the day after his week had run out. He had gone to the throne room solely for the purpose of telling his father that he had discovered the name of the cat masked woman and instead of that he was greeted by his father telling him that he would be married in an hour. He growled as he entered his room and found a tub of water surrounded by attendants, seriously he could bathe himself, and a suit laid out on his bed. It was a nice suit made out of silk and very attractive but all that he saw when he looked at it were black and white stripes.

An hour later found Zoro in a suit standing at the front of a room filled with people waiting for a wedding, but not just any wedding, no, they were waiting for his wedding. He looked at his dad only to be met with a pay attention glare and quickly returned to staring with a hopeless expression down the aisle. He felt the seed of despair grow as he saw the doors at the end of the aisle open and the blue haired princess step out. Sure she looked beautiful in her white dress but he couldn't see that, all he saw was the end to his freedom and his love. He watched as she walked towards him and he died a little more with each step and his heart was broken into shards by the time that she stood across from him. He barely listened as the priest read off what was supposed to happen and all too soon it was time for him to say I do. But just as he was about to open his mouth the doors slammed open.

"My King!" one of Zoro's fathers closest advisors called out as he ran into the wedding hall.

"Why are you disrupting my son's wedding?" His father looked furious as he gazed upon the man that had postponed Zoro's eternal doom.

"I express my sincerest apologizes for this my king but there is an urgent matter that must be known to you!"

"It can wait until after the wedding, now go and think over what you have done," with that the king turned away and looked at the priest to resume the wedding.

"But this matter can't wait my king, you are about to break your solemn vow!"

"What do you mean?" Zoro's father still looked irritated but there was a hint of curiosity in his eye now.

"Many years ago your son was promised to marry another."

"What of that? That girl is long dead."

"My King, she is not, earlier this morning I was taking a turn around the village for exercise and I saw the very girl to whom you promised the prince's hand all those years ago."

"That's impossible!"

"I am sorry my king, but isn't it necessary to look into this possibility before you marry your son to another?"

"If it wasn't for the fact that I have never broken my word before I would say no, but as that is not the case I suppose we must ascertain that I am not breaking my promise that I made all those years ago."

Zoro had watched this exchange with growing interest as it seemed that his wedding would be either postponed or canceled forever. He allowed the smallest seed of hope to plant itself in his heart as he heard them say that the girl was supposedly dead, his father had told him the same thing about the girl in the painting. He watched as his father hurriedly left the room and he himself quickly followed. He walked through the halls and to the door where he was stopped by an attendant.

"Your father requires that you stay in the palace," the shaking boy told him and squeaked, in a very manly way, when he was caught in Zoro's glare. Angry Zoro glared one more time at the boy who went against his whims before sitting down in a chair near the door to await the verdict that would change the outcome of his life.

**Nami's pov**

She glared at the locked door of the lawyer's office, why did they have to be closed on Sunday! She had no place to return to and now she had no way to get her step-family out of her house! To engrossed in her annoyance and self-pity to notice her surroundings she was taken by complete surprise when hands grabbed her and turned her around.

"Is your name Nami?" an excited man asked and Nami looked around to see about six more men wearing the same eager expression surrounding her.

"Yes?" she was really weirded out by the current situation.

"We found her!" one of the men yelled out into the street causing a swarm of richly dressed men to swarm towards her.

"Are your parents' dead?" one of the new arrivals asked.

"Yes?" she was still lost.

"When did they die?" it was yet another of the newly arrived men.

"My mother died twelve years ago and my father ten."

"And how old are you know?" the excitement in the air seemed to be growing with every question that she answered.

"18?" she really had no clue where this conversation could possibly be going.

"It's really her!" the men seemed really excited at this point, to the point that some of them were jumping up and down.

"Wait," a man pushed his way to the front of the crowd and Nami thought that he looked vaguely familiar, "do you have any proof of your lineage?" Nami looked into his eyes and saw the hope, despair, mistrust, and love all mixed in together.

"All I have is my mother's journal," she didn't know why but she felt that it was necessary to prove to him who she was and with that she handed him her connection to her mother. The man's eyes widened as he held the journal and the pain and mistrust vanished from his eyes.

"My daughter," he whispered as he embraced her in a hug.

"Wait," she said as she tried to push him off, "I'm not…" she was cut off by the men cheering then dragging her off down the street.

"We have the Princes bride!" the men yelled as they pulled her through the doors of the palace.

"Wait, what?" her eyes widened, that's why they had wanted to find her, she had to get away, there was no way that she would marry the prince. She thrashed around but the men showed no sign that they even noticed her as they dragged her into the entry way of the palace.

"My son, we have found your bride," she heard the man that had hugged her say and she stopped struggling for a moment, she knew that voice from somewhere. She couldn't see the man or his son through the throng of men and she tried to use the excitement to slip away from them but she had no such luck.

"Who is she? No one told me you all just ran off." Nami froze again, that voice she knew, it was familiar but she couldn't quite remember where it was from. It sort of sounded like the voice of the man with the sword mask but it couldn't be him…could it? While she was frozen the men took the opportunity to clear a path way and drag her to her prince.

**Zoro's pov**

It was her. He felt time just stop as he stared into the face that had haunted his every thought since the ball. She was as beautiful as he remembered if not more so. He felt his dead heart come back to life as he realized that the person he was going to marry would be the woman that he had fallen in love with already, he now had a chance at happiness.

"Nami," he breathed as he gazed upon her, he felt as thrilled as if he had just defeated the world's greatest swordsman.

"I don't know who you are but I have enough to deal with right now without marriage added in the mix," Zoro felt his heart crush as she said those words and he changed his face into an emotionless mask.

"So the cat took out her claws," he commented and watched her face change to one of confusion.

"Do I know you?" she tentatively asked and he could see that she was struggling to place him.

"So I don't say anything about what happened and I listen to your whole life story and you don't remember me!" he may love her but he couldn't help but get irritated at her for not knowing who he was.

"The man with the sword mask?" there was definitely a question in that voice but he could hear the hope and despair that was mixed in with it and once again his heart his heart rose up from the pits of despair that it had so often been acquainted with this particular day.

"So the cat remembers." He saw her eyes fill with disbelief that was quickly replaced by joy.

"It is you!" she cried as she threw herself into him and wrapped her arms around his neck. He smiled softly down at her as he held her to him with one arm and stroked her hair gently with the other.

**Nami's pov**

It had only been a week since she had come to the palace and already so much had happened. She had been ecstatic to find the man that she had fallen in love with at the ball and for a few days they just couldn't seem to get enough of each other, though it wasn't long before they had started bickering. Since she was about to be the queen, a fact that she still couldn't believe, she had enough influence to kick her step family out of her house. It had turned out that the lawyer's office had kept a copy of her parents will even though she was believed to be dead and now she could get all the rights that it offered. She also got the dragon woman thrown in prison for the murder of her parents, hey when you're about to be the queen you don't need more proof then a journal.

"Are you ready?" a young maid asked as she entered the room and Nami smiled at her before standing up and following the maid out of the room. All the pain and suffering that she had gone through melted as she stepped out into the brightly lit garden and saw the man at the end of the aisle. He was wearing a dark green suit and though he wore a mask with three swords on it that covered his face she still thought he was the most handsome creature to walk this earth. She walked down the aisle with her radiant smile being hidden from the guests by the cat mask that she wore. When she reached the end she gazed into the eye holes of the mask in front of her and tried her hardest to pay attention to the words that the priest was saying. She felt her breath and heart speed up as the priest neared the end and finally the moment had arrived.

"I do."

**Thank you for reading now please review and/or tell me what you want to hear more about in the five real truths :D**

**1. In back to the future they have the size changing clothes.**

**2. Apparently Nami has some weird lock that can be broken open from the inside only and in this fic she hasn't had the opportunity to learn how to pick a lock yet. Also in this world you can magically teach someone to pick a lock.**

**3. The only reason that Alvida kept the will is because she wanted it as power over Nami if she ever tried anything. **

**4. I know that I am turning Nami into a cry baby but she is very emotional about her family.**

**5. Zoro got lost (big shocker) and missed her neighborhood. **

**6. For those of you who wondered why I didn't just use Vivi as Nami's friend here is your answer, I needed her to come in later, okay that's a lie I forgot about her until my friend and I were having a conversation about original characters and she told me that I should have just used Vivi so I decided I should put Vivi in so it could at least look like I had a legit reason for Habille.**

**7. I know he is acting weird but his love got taken away so…**


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